Clairvoyant
by melodycarstairs
Summary: OC, Alex gets sent to the Arrowverse. Stuff happens. Set in season 5. Sorry for the summary, or lack thereof. I don't want to give anything much away but the basic plot is inside. Enjoy! Canon pairings.
1. Chapter 1

**I keep hoping this happens to me.**

 **Plot: OC, Alex gets transported to the Arrowverse (story does not mention how. Why? Because I don't know how. She just does). She's a fangirl and Arrow is one of her favourite TV shows. She quickly figures out where she is and decides to lay low, but fails terribly at it. Stuff happens. Mostly follows the plot of season 5.**

 **1.**

 **Alex**

A week ago, Alex had been transported to the Arrowverse. She had thought she was dreaming for a while. Then she had thought she had gone crazy. Then she had accepted that it had happened. She wasn't exactly complaining - she had a boring life back home. Alex had read enough fan fictions and watched enough movies to know that running off to meet her favourite characters wasn't going to end well. Instead, she had decided to find a job and rent an apartment to lay low and figure out exactly when in the Arrowverse she had been transported to. It wasn't easy considering that the show only showed the life of Team Arrow. Oliver was Mayor, but that didn't exactly help figure out the exact time. Alex was 18. There weren't many jobs that would hire her, especially that she lacked the skills. It was either waitress or kindergarten teacher. She chose the latter. Alex had been worried that she couldn't show proof of her existence here in the Aroowverse, but she had been surprised to find a small backpack with her which held everything necessary to start a life here. So here she was, walking back to the small apartment she had rented in the good part of the city. An apartment in the Glades just didn't sound appealing, and the bag had had enough cash to buy Palmer Tech if she wanted to. But since she had decided to lay low, she just bought a small apartment and started working as a kindergarten teacher.

As she walked, she passed the Mayor's office. She had contemplated walking in there and meeting Oliver Queen, or walking to the Arrow Cave and meeting the entirety of Team Arrow, but she didn't fancy a whole set of vigilantes with weapons pointed at her. Also, she couldn't explain how she knew where the Arrow Cave was without sounding like a lunatic. So she had stuck to a normal life. Well, kinda normal. She would sometimes go out at night and help the citizens of Star City by saving them from gangsters and such. She couldn't fight much, so she would distract them. Namely throwing stones at said gangsters from heights, hiding in the shadows, hoping that the innocent civilian or two would have enough time to run away.

Today was different though. She had woken up with the goal to actually go into the Mayor's office. Maybe not to meet Oliver, but to atleast look at him in person. That might sound stalkerish and creepy but Alex didn't care. This was one of her favourite characters ever. There was no way she would pass up the opportunity to meet him without getting caught thrown into Iron Heights prison. Or Arkham Asylum. Alex squared her shoulders and walked in through the basement. She didn't have enough courage to go through the front doors yet. She told herself to woman up and go through with this. After all, who knows how long she was going to stay here? Whoever had decided to send her here could send her back to her own universe at any time. She had to make the most of her time.

As she walked, she spotted Susan Williams walking to her car. Alex never really liked Susan, but she didn't despise her either. She was a character required for the plot and that was all. She didn't have much of an opinion on her. Behind Susan however, Alex could see Adrian Chase. Alex's eyes widened. Damn. She had chosen the wrong day to go into the Mayor's office. This was the day Adrian had kidnapped Susan to punish Oliver. Adrian hadn't seen Alex yet, but she was sure that if she made a run for it, Adrian would definitely come after her. She saw Adrian catch Susan's wrist and knock her out.' Alex tried to slow her breathing. She tried to keep as quiet as possible, but it didn't help her. At that exact moment Adrian Chase looked up and locked eyes with her. He looked taken aback for a moment but he quickly composed himself. He walked towards Alex. She was frozen at her spot. She knew that she couldn't outrun him, and she could definitely not fight him. So she stood still and hoped that he wouldn't kill her. She looked back into his eyes with hardly clouded fear. Alex knew that Adrian was one of Arrow's best (or worst. Depends how you put it) villains. As he neared her, he lifted his hand and punched the side of her face. Pain like nothing she'd ever felt before shot through her head. She vaguely remembered falling to the ground before passing out. _So much for lying low_.

 **Thanks for reading! Please review and tell me if there are any mistakes.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm terrible at updating. I know. I have no excuses except that I'm really really lazy. I'll try updating better from now.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow or any of its characters. I only own my OC-Alex.**

 **2.**

 **Alex**

When Alex came to, her head was pounding so hard that it felt like a wrecking ball had been slammed into the side of her face. She'd never really been unconscious before. Back home, she'd always been a shy, careful girl. Possibly a coward. She never tried to do anything exciting. Not even climb a tree. And now she was stuck in what was possibly an alternate universe, kidnapped by a psychopath just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not to mention she knew everything that was going to happen in the near future. She'd seen the season finale before being transported here. She knew everyone's fate here but hers. And it was terrifying. She knew Adrian Chase wasn't someone she could just throw small rocks and escape. She'd be dead before she even picked up a rock. She had to make a proper plan.

Next to her, Susan Williams was tied up. She still seemed to be unconscious, or she was pretending to be. Alex knew that in a few hours Oliver and his team would come to rescue Susan. Hopefully, she'd be rescued too. If she didn't die by then. She made a mental note not to piss Chase off. She didn't know why she was still alive. There was no reason for Adrian to keep her alive when he could have easily snapped her neck in the parking lot. So he must want something with her. The thought wasn't comforting in the least.

While Alex knew that Team Arrow would rescue Susan from this building, she didn't know if she'd still be here when they came. Adrian could just move her elsewhere. And no one would ever know. Unless Susan came to before he did so.

Startling her out of her thoughts, she heard a small moan from beside her. Looks like Susan was coming to. Alex had never been more relieved in her life. Susan's head rolled around a little before she let out a gasp of pain. Alex watched her look around frantically before her eyes settled on Alex's face.

"Who are you?" Susan asked. She sounded so terrified. Alex didn't blame her. She herself was scared out of her mind.

She swallowed a little before replying. "I'm Alex. I was in the parking lot when he took you. He spotted me before I could run. So he knocked me out and brought me here too."

"How long have you been up?"

"A couple minutes." Alex replied. She decided to play dumb. "You're Susan Williams, right? That reporter?"

Susan nodded, but immediately squeezed her eyes shut. The movement must've hurt after being knocked out.

"Why did whoever it was kidnap you? What does he want? W-why would he do this? I don't even know who he is. I'm just a teacher!" Alex exclaimed. She'd decided to play the oblivious victim (well she actually was the victim) who would stutter at every sentence and cry everytime she got scared. It wasn't all that hard to pretend, considering she did cry very easily.

"I'm sorry. He wanted me. You were there at the wrong time."

"What are we going to do? W-" Alex started, but she got cut off by the scraping of metal.

She whipped her head around, ignoring the throbbing. Adrian Chase himself had opened the door behind them. Her eyes went wide and her heart started beating wildly. Shit. _Shit_.

Beside her, Susan seemed to be in a better state. Slightly. She looked terrified but atleast she wasn't visibly shaking like Alex was. Adrian smiled. It was a horrible expression Alex never wanted to see again once all this was over. That smile alone would give her nightmares for days. But Alex decided she'd stop being a coward and face the situation. She was currently in a universe of superheroes and she'd be damned before she let them see her cowering because of a psycho.

"Well. Looks like you're both up." Adrian said. He walked over to Susan. "I'm sure you have many questions Susan, but I'm also sure you know the answer to the most important one."

"What do you want?" Susan met his eyes boldly.

"Oliver Queen. You know he's the Green Arrow. By now you must've come to the conclusion that I'm the Throwing Star killer."

"What you are is a madman who thinks he can get away with murdering innocent people. You'll never win." Susan spat. "And now it looks like you're kidnapping teenagers too." She looked at Alex.

Adrian followed her gaze to look at Alex as well. He smirked. "She's a witness. Can't have her go blabbing to the SCPD yet."

"Why didn't you just kill me then?" Alex asked him. Atleast her voice didn't quiver.

"Because I wanted to know who you were. No one was supposed to be there when I took Susan here. I'd scoured the entire lot. No one was supposed to be there. But there you were." Adrian said. He looked a bit uncomfortable at this. Of course he would be. This was a variable he hadn't accounted for.

"I'm sure you know who I am by now. So why am I still alive?" Alex asked. She didn't have a death wish, but Alex's curiosity had won. Plus, she'd just promised to herself not be a coward.

"I just mentioned that Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow. I also mentioned that I'm the Throwing Star killer. Personally I prefer Prometheus. But you didn't even flinch. Like you knew this already. How does a kindergarten teacher know so much? A kindergarten teacher who showed up out of the blue a couple weeks ago."

Crap. Alex didn't know what to say. How would she explain that she came from a universe where this whole thing was a TV show? He would never believe her. And even if he believed her, he would just torture her for information about the future. She was screwed.

Apparently she'd stayed quiet for too long. He was talking to Susan now. "-send a message to your boyfriend." He walked to the door and brought a camera and a tripod. This was going to be that message that Dinah and Curtis get from his house. The one in which he tortured Susan. Oh shit. Alex couldn't do anything to stop him. She was tied up pretty tightly. Adrian walked over to her, a cloth in his hand.

"Don't make a sound." He warned her, before tying the cloth around her mouth. It tasted so bad, Alex could've thrown up right there. The cloth was rough and was bound to leave a mark. Susan was shouting at him, asking him what he was trying to do.

He just walked over to the camera and started it. He pulled the hood of his Prometheus outfit over his head and walked behind Susan with a knife. Where'd he get the knife? It wasn't there before. Well. This was Prometheus. It must've been somewhere on his person.

Alex saw where this was going and she let out a muffled shout through the cloth. "Don't hurt her!"

Adrian stilled and slowly turned his head to face her. He walked to her and slid the sharp end of the knife on her forearm. A sharp, stinging pain began to flair on Alex's hand. Tears prickled the corners of her eyes and she screamed. Through the pain, she didn't hear Susan scream at him to stop.

"I told you. Not a sound. Next time you disobey, it'll be a lot worse." Alex was sobbing now. She tried to be quiet, but it wasn't working. Adrian glared at her again. She immediately quietened.

Satisfied, he went back to stand behind Susan. He dragged the knife across her forehead. Susan screamed. Alex shrunk on herself hearing it. It was horrible.

"Help!" Susan sobbed. "Unh!"

"Excellent." Adrian said with his voice modulator on. "Now give us another scream." He dragged the blade across her coller bone this time. Susan screamed again and started sobbing more.

Adrian turned off the camera. "That's it for now." He said and removed the gag on Alex's mouth. He was about to walk out that door when he turned back. "Next time I come in here, I hope for your sake, you have an answer ready for me." It was directed to Alex. She visibly swallowed, but kept herself from shaking. Not that she thought it did much to not make her look like a coward. Her face was covered in tear tracks and her eyes were red. Her hair was sticking out at all ends and the cut on her arm didn't help much.

Hopefully, there wouldn't be a next time. Oliver and co should arrive in few hours before Adrian had a chance to hurt her. When he left, she squeezed her eyes shut and let out a few silent tears.

 **And that's chapter 2! Review and let me know what you think or if there are any mistakes. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So chapter 3 is finally here! I'm so glad that people are actually reading this fic. I'm eternally grateful to you all.**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own, blah blah..**

 **3.**

 **Alex**

At some point, Alex must've fallen asleep because of the fear. She woke up to the sound of the door opening again. Susan was awake too. Had she been awake and quiet this whole time? Wait. How long was "this whole time?"

Before she could contemplate further, Chase stepped into view. Alex froze. He'd warned her that she'd have to have an answer, and she very obviously didn't. Her mind raced to form an excuse but Adrian cut into her thoughts.

"Don't worry. You still have an hour or so to come up with an answer." He said. Alex almost sighed in relief. He had another cloth in his hand. This time he tied it around Susan's mouth. She looked like she was going to be sick. Alex knew the feeling. Didn't this guy have the courtesy to atleast use clean rags to tie around people-he-kidnapped's mouths? Apparently not. He untied the ropes binding Susan and hauled her upright. She made a noise of protest but Chase ignored her. He pulled her through the door and out. Alex could only watch with her hopes of being rescued dying. Because right now, Adrian was taking Susan to that elevator. So he'd come back and get Alex to be moved elsewhere. Otherwise he'd have taken them both together.

Her eyes started to burn with tears again and she let out a choked sob. But this time, she refused to let the tears fall. She had to be strong. There must be been reason she was sent into this universe and that could not be so that she'd be Susan's companion during her kidnapping. She took a deep breath and blinked back the tears. She slowly counted to ten to slow her wildly beating heart.

A few moments later, Chase came back. He smirked and untied the ropes binding her to the chair. She stood up without him having to haul her up like he did Susan. The room started to spin at the action. How long had it been since she ate? There was no way to tell the time in this dusty old room.

Chase motioned her to walk out the door. She complied, with him right behind her. He didn't even have to threaten her or hold a knife at her back. He knew she knew it was stupid to run. He directed her to a car with its windows tinted. She got into the passengers seat and he started to drive.

Alex kept her mouth shut throughout the drive. She didn't want unnecessary questions about her existence. When they reached the destination, Adrian roughly shoved her into a cell and gave her a bottle of water. She gladly drank the entire bottle. She wasn't going to be stupid and refuse as a sign of defiance or something.

When she looked up from the now empty bottle, she saw him studying her. She immediately looked away and backed towards the wall of the cell. He just smirked again and closed the door to the cell.

"When I come back, you won't be as lucky as this time. You will have to answer." He barely spoke above a whisper. And that was even bone-chilling than if he had been shouting. Alex gulped, but refused to answer. When she looked up again, he was gone. She actually sighed in relief this time and fell to the floor. She curled herself up into a ball and started rocking back and forth, thinking of a way to get out of this mess.

Alex woke up again this time (she was falling asleep and passing out a lot in the Arrowverse. That could be the end of her. She had to pay attention to not sleeping from now on) not to anything as pleasant as the opening of a door. This time, she woke up to a scream. A scream of pure and utter pain. But a scream whose voice she recognised. Oliver Queen. She sat up immediately. She was still in the cell Adrian had placed her in. What was happening?

And then she remembered. He'd kidnapped Oliver at the end of the episode. After killing his own wife. He was going to torture Oliver and then that whole thing with Krissy (Evelyn Sharpe. Whatever. The actress played Krissy on Supernatural and that's what Alex called her.) would happen. Oh, how she hated that girl. She had (or has, now) no right to call Oliver out on any of his mistakes when she'd aligned herself with a psychopath. Who just killed his wife because revenge was more important to him than love or family.

Another scream echoed through the building. "I don't know what you want!" Alex couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"Stop!" She yelled. "Adrian, stop!"

Everything went quiet for a minute. A minute in which she started internally cursing herself for opening her mouth. She was done for now. Oliver would be alright. She knew that. But she couldn't bear to hear his screams. He was hands down one of her most favourite characters and now that he was actually physically real, she couldn't let him suffer more than he already had. Even if just for a minute, she'd brought him relief during his torture.

Alex had never been more terrified in her life. Her heart beat wildly in her chest. This wouldn't be the end of her. She knew Adrian Chase, even if it was just from watching him on TV. This would be worse than death. He would torture her and kill her slowly.

A sound made her snap her head up. She was still huddled against the back wall of the cell. Adrian had a knife in his hand. He came closer, slowly, just to draw her fear out. When he reached her, Alex squeezed her eyes shut and started whimpering. But instead of feeling the knife on her skin, she heard it cut her ropes. She snapped her eyes open in shock. Maybe he was just taking her elsewhere to torture her? His torture room probably. She didn't put having a torture room past him.

He pulled her up and started dragging her out of the cell. She could do nothing but follow him. He led her into another cell next to hers, but this one wasn't empty like the first one. Inside it was her hero. Oliver Queen. The Green Arrow. She would've been ecstatic at meeting him if it wasn't for the situation. Near the entrance of the cell lay Krissy. She was great at acting, Alex had to give her that. She couldn't even see her breathing.

How long had Alex passed out? Surely she would've heard Oliver and Artemis fighting? Chase had probably added a sedative in the water he gave her. That explained her passing out when she'd tried so hard not to.

Oliver was chained to the ground from his hands. His shoulder was completely drenched in red. His Bratva tattoo was visible. When she gathered the courage to look up at his face, her eyes met with confused and concerned blue ones. She sniffled and swallowed before looking back at Chase. The psychopath simply smirked and dropped the knife on the floor.

"I hope you don't waste your chance this time Oliver." With that, he walked out.

Alex's brows furrowed and she looked back at Oliver. What the hell? Chase had literally given her a chance to plot (who was she kidding? Oliver was gonna be doing the plotting, and she would be doing the aiding) and escape. He'd even left then a knife. Alex picked up the knife and was about to move towards Oliver when he started shaking his head.

"Stop. We don't have to kill each other." He said. Suddenly, it hit Alex. He thought she was gonna try and kill him. Psshht. Like that was possible. She wouldn't even get close enough to touch him if he didn't want her to. "Just bring me the knife and I'll free myself. Then we can both ambush him."

Alex tilted her head to the side and said, "Okay." It came out raspy and she started to cough. How long had it been since she ate? When her coughs subsided, she handed the knife to Oliver. He looked mildly surprised at this. He probably thought she wouldn't do it. He didn't know that she knew him. According to him, there was no reason she had to help him. Alex didn't care what he thought at the moment. She just wanted to get out of this place as fast as she could.

Oliver was working on his cuffs, when Adrian came back in. "Come on!" He exclaimed. "I would've thought you learned your lesson by now." He turned to look at Alex. "Did you really think it was going to be that easy? You haven't given me an answer yet. I'll hardly let you go." Alex cursed herself for the second time that hour. Of course he wouldn't just let them go. He needed a confession from Oliver and an answer from her.

She looked back to see Oliver's reaction, but suddenly she couldn't breathe. Her eyes wide, she clawed at the hand at her throat.

"What do you think, Oliver? Should I snap her neck like I did to poor Evelyn or be patient and wait for her answer?"

"Stop Adrian! She isn't a part of this. I don't even know who she is! Let her go!" She could hear Oliver shout but her vision was going blurry and she could hardly make out the words. This was the third time she was going to pass out, or die. The Arrowverse was very unhealthy for her. Before she could collapse against Chase, she felt her lungs fill back up with air. He had let her go. She stumbled forward and started taking huge gulps of air.

"Yeah, I'll let her live. I'm too curious about her." Alex's eyes burned with tears. This time, she couldn't keep them in. She wiped furiously at them but it wasn't helping. The tears flowed without a stop. "But sweetheart, this time you will give me an answer. I've given you enough time to think about how you'll phrase it."

She shook her head violently and stumbled back towards the back wall of the cell. Through the tears, she could see Adrian walking closer, and through the sounds of her sobs, she could hear Oliver shouting at him to leave her the hell alone.

Adrian now had the knife she'd given to Oliver. One hand pinned her shoulder to the wall, so that she had no way to escape. The other held the knife to her collar bone. "So are you going to tell me or do you want me to get it out of you?"

 **I'm really grateful to everyone who's read this story. I hope you stick around till the end. If you have any ideas for how you want the story to go, leave me a message. I know I haven't updated my other fics in a long time and I'm sorry. I'll update them as soon as I can. Hopefully the next chapter of this fic will be up by next week. Once again, thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I know I made you wait for two weeks, and I'm sorry. Hope you like this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own anything except Alex.**

 **4.**

 **Alex**

Usually, Alex would've passed out because of fear or dehydration, but right now, all she could do was think of a way to get both her and Oliver out of here without either of them getting killed. Guess her fight or flight mode finally kicked in after so many days in the Arrowverse. She was still having a hard time breathing but forced her mind to have coherent thoughts.

She had sorta worked on an idea in the short duration in which Adrian pulled her out of her cell and into Oliver's. She just prayed that it would work now. She just had to figure out how she would convey it without any loopholes in her story.

But apparently she had taken too long to respond. A sharp pain just above her collar bone brought her out of her thoughts. Adrian dragged the knife up to her left shoulder before she could even let out a scream of pain. If she thought the first time he used the knife on her hurt, this definitely put it to shame. She squeezed her eyes shut willing herself not to scream or go back to being unresponsive because of pain.

"Stop! Please! I'll tell you." She whimpered, opening her eyes. "But you have to promise to let both of us go when I do."

Adrian raised an eyebrow. "You give me what I want, I'll let you go. For now. And he gives me what I want, I'll let him go."

Alex steeled herself and shook her head. She forced the fear out of her mind. "I'll tell you what you want to know about me. But you let us both go."

"What makes you think you can demand something from me?" Adrian looked amused. "You don't seem to understand. Now I'm going to make this harder for you. I won't let either of you go unless both of you give me what I want."

Well that backfired spectacularly. She'd just dug a deeper hole for both of them. Oliver had been quiet the whole time, probably wondering what she'd done to get on Chase's bad side. Alex was surprised to see that he didn't look at her accusingly because she'd made this a bit worse for them. He still looked concerned.

Oliver chose this moment to interrupt. "I don't know what you want from me."

"Confess, Oliver. You don't kill because you have to. So why? Why do you do it?"

"Because I want to." Alex's heart breaks for him. Oliver blames himself for everything. He had a guilt-complex the size of Saturn. She'd hoped she could've prevented this moment. This was the lowest Oliver had ever been in all the seasons.

"What?" Adrian questions.

"I want to. I want to! And I liked it."

"How's it feel knowing that I saw the one thing you couldn't admit to yourself?"

Evelyn decides to get finally give up her Oscar-worthy act. Alex hated her so much. All Oliver had done was try and train her so she could fight for the good without getting herself killed. And this is how she repaid him. If Alex actually had the energy, she would've tackled her right then and there. She looked so smug. "I knew he'd break. Just like you said he would."

Alex seriously contemplated tackling her down after that comment. Screw self-preservation.

"It's 'cause I know him better than he even knows himself." He turns towards Evelyn. "Give us a moment alone, would you?"

Alex barely registers her walk out of the cell. She is only looking at Oliver, silently hoping he would look at her and see that she is on his side. He isn't alone. But Oliver refuses to do so. He pretends like she isn't in the cell. Knowing him, he probably expects her to hate him because of his confession. Maybe she would have hated him if she didn't know him. But he didn't know that she knew him.

"I told you, Oliver. You infect every life you touch.  
And now do you realize why? It's because your crusade was based on a lie. You used your father's memory to justify a killing spree. There's a price to be paid for that, Oliver." He pauses. "Your mother paid it. Your friend Tommy paid it, Laurel. Do you really want to tell me that John Diggle and Felicity Smoak's lives are better having known you?"

Alex did want to tell him so. Oliver Queen was the best thing that happened to them, just like they were the best thing that happened to Oliver Queen. Adrian would never understand that.

"You promised to let us go." Oh, so he hadn't entirely forgotten her existence.

"And I'm a man of my word." He turns to Alex. "But she made it complicated, didn't she?" Alex looked anywhere but at the two of them. Chase turns back towards Oliver. "But first, I have a gift for you."

Alex's eyes widen. No. No. She wouldn't let it happen. He was not going to burn out Oliver's Bratva tattoo. He had passed out from the pain in the episode. No.

As Chase moves towards Oliver, Alex squeezed her eyes shut. She had to do something. Anything.

"You won't believe me," she said, succeeding in making Adrian pause and turn towards her, "even if I told you who I am."

"Try me."

Alex drew in a deep breath and looked Chase in the eye - the only trick she knew to make someone believe her. "I'm from a different universe."

Both men were now looking at her.

"I know you've encountered different universes before." Her gaze flitted towards Oliver for a second before coming back to land on Chase. "You won't believe me when I tell you that I come from a universe very similar to this one. The only difference that I have encountered between the two is that my family doesn't exist in this one. So neither do I. Oh, and we have Starbucks back home."

She took another deep breath and continued on the story she'd fabricated. "I didn't react when you said that Oliver was the Green Arrow because I already knew it. I'm part of Team Arrow back home." Adrian didn't look very convinced. "I don't know how I ended up in a different universe. All I know is that I had my backpack filled with everything I'd need here." That part was actually true.

"And pray tell what your expertise on 'Team Arrow' was?" He definitely didn't believe her. Oliver just looked shocked. He probably didn't believe her either but he looked like he wanted to convince himself that it was true.

"I don't have any powers or training if that's what you're asking. Oliver and I were close friends in school. Then I moved away. When I came back to Star City a year ago, I found out he was the Green Arrow because he saved me." She prayed that he'd buy the completely fabricated story. If he didn't, he'd kill her now.

Thankfully, Adrian believed her. He looked very skeptical but he accepted the story. For now. She would come up with more reasons why her story was legit once they were both out of here. She would probably tell Oliver and the rest of his team about her. They were the only ones who could help her now. Or maybe she was meant to help them. But she didn't know how. She wasn't lying when she told Chase that she didn't know the first thing about combat. Or computers.

"You promised to let us go."

"I did, but I still haven't given him," he pointed at Oliver, "that gift I promised."

Before Oliver could say anything, Alex shook her head violently. "That was not part of the deal. We give you what you want, you let us go. We've done what you wanted."

Adrian just smirked. He proceeded to burn Oliver's tattoo. The screams that left Oliver would haunt Alex's dreams more than anything else. She fell to the floor screaming at Adrian to stop. She crawled over to them and pushed him back with all her strength. Adrian actually fell back, but Alex didn't even register it. Oliver's screams had stopped but his face was scrunched up in pure agony. He was about to pass out. Alex's tears were falling freely. They dropped into Oliver's torso as she hovered above him, taking his face in her hands, murmuring that it would be okay.

After what felt like forever, Oliver passed out. When she looked up, Adrian was gone, leaving the cell door open. Half of the tattoo was replaced by burnt skin.

Alex contemplated leaving and going to get help. She quickly dismissed the idea. What if he woke up when she was gone and thought she'd abandoned him? Plus, Alex wasn't great at directions. She was in a half delirious state and anyone she came across would send her straight to the hospital. Maybe they wouldn't believe that someone else was there with her and she'd escaped. Also, if they did believe her, Oliver wouldn't want to go to a hospital.

So she sat and waited, he back against a wall. He would wake up soon and go to the Arrowcave. (Yes, she called it the Arrowcave.) She was physically and mentally exhausted.

She didn't even realize she'd dozed off until she felt a palm against her cheek. She jumped, but when she saw it was just Oliver, she relaxed and slowed her breathing down. He was crouched down in front of her, with concern dancing in his blue eyes.

"Are you alright?" He started checking her over for any more injuries she might have. She quickly nodded and moved to stand up. She stumbled because of lack of food and water, and would've fallen down if Oliver hadn't caught her.

Seriously? She wasn't the one who literally just had her skin burned off after an intense physical and mental torture session. And yet here he was, supporting her and checking her over for injuries.

"I'm sorry," she told him. At his questioning gaze, she elaborated. "I tried to stop him from doing that to you," she gestured to the half-burned tattoo, "but I didn't."

He shook his head. "You stopped him from completely burning it off." Alex ducked her head, still ashamed of herself for not reaching him before.

They found a car on the empty road, and Oliver hot-wired it. Alex absolutely refused to let him drive. She told him to just sit and tell her which way to go. She was tired and weak, but not enough for her to not be able to drive.

When they reached the Arrowcave, she actually felt much better. They had found a couple granola bars in the glove compartment. She was able to stand on her own, but once they got out of the car, she still stayed close to Oliver's side, her left arm brushing his right one as they walked in.

Alex knew she was about to meet Felicity, John and maybe the rest of the new recruits, but she didn't have the energy to feel nervous about seeing them or excited about being in the Arrowcave. When they exited the elevator, Oliver put and arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him. She gave him a small smile which he returned with a nod. As they walked out towards the computers, Alex could see Felicity sitting on her usual chair and Dig standing. Curtis was there too, explaining something that Alex couldn't even hope to understand, to Felicity. They didn't notice Oliver or her.

"And Oliver's been gone for 6 days and-" That's when Dig and Curtis notice them. "And what?" Felicity continued, following their line of sight. "Oliver? Oh, my God!" She ran over to them.

"Oliver?" John hesitantly asked.

Oliver's voice was soft and defeated when he answered. "Chase had us," he groaned and leaned on Alex, "and he let us go."

"Go slow, man." John said. His eyes flickered over to Alex, his gaze questioning.

"It's over." They all turned to look at Oliver. Alex knew this was coming, but it didn't make it any less painful.

"Oliver, we're gonna get this son of a bitch for whatever he did to you." John tried to say, but he was ignored.

"John, it's- it-it-it's over for me. I don't want to do this anymore. I'm shutting everything down."

Everyone looked shocked. They didn't know what to say so they turned towards Alex. Her hand was now gripping Oliver's, but her eyes were downcast.

 **Yay! Alex finally met (well, kinda) Team Arrow! Hope you enjoyed that chapter. Please leave a review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**To make up for making you wait so long for the previous chapter, I'm updating this one so soon. Hope you like it!**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own.**

 **5.**

 **Alex**

Felicity had given Alex fresh clothes and showed her to the bathroom in the bunker, while Oliver got all his wounds wrapped up. She'd taken the clothes with a small smile and a thank you.

As soon as Alex had seen herself in the mirror, everything that had happened caught up to her in her mind. She broke down crying, trying to muffle the sounds using her dirty t shirt. She sat down on the floor with her back to the door and her head in her hands. She had just survived a kidnapping by a psychopathic villain from a comic book. She had no one in this universe - not her family, not her best friend - no one. And as soon as she stepped out of the bathroom, she'd have to explain to the Team who she was, and this time, she couldn't lie. Oliver definitely knew that she had been lying to Chase. (And if Oliver knew, then so did Chase. She didn't know why he'd let them go, but she wasn't complaining.) Alex missed everyone from back home so much. She'd give anything to be hugged by her mom again. Now, all she had was herself and some fictional characters that she loved, but they didn't even know who she was.

After about 15 minutes of crying, she calmed down enough to clean herself up and change into the clean clothes. She scrubbed her face hard to bring some colour into it.

Once she was done, Alex stepped out of the bathroom feeling guilty for having used it for so long. Oliver would have needed to clean up too. When Alex looked around, only Oliver was left in the Arrowcave. He was sitting on one of the couches, his shoulder and chest covered in bandages. He looked up at her and Alex could see the exhaustion on his face.

She sat on the couch beside him. "You should take a shower. I'll go out and get some food for us."

He didn't respond for a few seconds. Then he nodded and gave her the money, before going into the bathroom. Alex was grateful that he'd remembered that she didn't have any money on her since she'd been kidnapped. Now she wouldn't have to go back to her apartment and get the money.

Alex went to the nearest Big Belly Burger and bought enough food to probably feed the entire Team. She was famished and she didn't care that she spent all of the money Oliver had given her. When she got back to the bunker, Oliver was wearing the same grey hoodie from earlier but Alex could tell that he'd changed his shirt. She handed him the food and settled down herself on the couch to eat. Neither of them spoke when they ate. They just relished in the taste of the burgers, happy that they didn't have to stay alone.

Of course that didn't last long, because Oliver being Oliver, he tried to push her away just like he had the rest of the Team. "You should go back to your apartment. You need to sleep."

Alex was surprised that he didn't ask her for the truth immediately. She didn't think he even knew her name. He was more mentally tired than she'd thought he would be. "I don't think either of us should be alone right now." He opened his mouth to disagree but she cut him off. "I'm going to sleep," and before he could argue, she lied down and closed her eyes. She didn't even have to pretend to be asleep because sleep claimed her immediately.

When Alex woke up, she felt well-rested. There was a pillow below her head and a blanket covered her. Those were definitely not there when she'd fallen asleep the previous night. She smiled to herself. Oliver was a softie at heart.

Oliver was gone, but he'd left her another bag of food. There was no note saying where he was or what she should do. Alex didn't know what he'd explained to the rest of the Team. She figured she was in the clear since no one was here and the bunker's door wasn't locked.

So she walked back to her apartment while eating the food. She took a long bath and wore the comfiest pair of pajamas she owned. She settled down on her couch and watched her favourite movies. She had called the school telling them that she wasn't feeling well that day. Thankfully, she had been kidnapped over the weekend so she didn't have to explain her absence to anyone as the school was closed and Alex didn't have any friends in Star City.

She spent the rest of the day watching the movies and once she was out of movies, she rewatched all her favourite episodes from Merlin. Once she realised that she didn't have any food in the apartment, she decided she'd go out to the grocery store and buy things to prepare her own meal. She didn't feel like eating food out of a can, and she had plenty of free time.

When Alex returned from the store with all the ingredients she'd need to make her favourite pasta, she heard the TV running before she entered the apartment. Alex was sure she had switched it off before leaving. Had Adrian come back to kidnap her again? No, if he really wanted to take her again, he'd have found her at the grocery store.

With that reasoning, Alex opened the door to find Oliver sitting on her couch watching Tangled. Oliver Queen liked Disney. She didn't know if she should laugh or sigh in relief that she wasn't about to be kidnapped again, but before she did anything, he noticed her. "That horse is my favourite character." He must have figured out her name if he'd found her house.

Alex raised her eyebrows. "Mine's Flynn." She set the bag of groceries down on the kitchen counter.

"What? Just because he's good-looking?" He'd paused the movie and followed her into the kitchen.

"Yes."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "What are you making?"

"I hope you don't mind pasta. I can't make much else." She started pulling out the bowls and knife.

"Eh. I don't get home-cooked food from anyone other than Raisa. It'll be nice to taste someone else's." He started removing the vegetables from the bag. "Do you want me to do anything?"

"Nah. Go watch the movie. You must've had a long day - what with you being the Mayor and all. I'll be done in 30 minutes."

He shrugged and went back to watching the movie. She cooked silently, wondering how she would tell him who she actually was, when he would inevitably ask. She'd probably tell him everything. She was terrible at lying. Adrian must have something planned for her when he let her go. Now that she was free, she could find so many loopholes in her story. How could she have possibly been Oliver's friend from school? She was even younger than Thea is. Why would Oliver let her be part of Team Arrow when she has zero skills? Sure, he'd let her hang out with them but not be part of the Team. She wanted to smack herself with the frying pan.

Once she was done with the pasta, she put it into two bowls and took them to the couch. She handed one to Oliver and settled down on the couch. The movie was almost over, but Alex didn't mind. She'd watched it so many times that she could tell you every dialogue word-to-word. The pasta was still very hot so she settled into blowing on it to cool it down. Once, she was convinced that it was ok to eat it and not burn her mouth, she picked some up with the fork and put it in her mouth. But apparently she'd been wrong. It was still very, very hot. Alex slapped her hand on her mouth and when she looked up to search for a bottle of water, she saw Oliver looking very amused. She glared at him and ran to the kitchen and downed a whole glass of cold water. He was outright laughing now and Alex sat back down with a scowl on her face. By the time he calmed himself down, the movie was over. Alex was pointedly ignoring him and instead looking at the blank screen of the TV.

After a few minutes of silence, Oliver started, "So are you going to tell me who you actually are?"

"Alex Koller."

Oliver raised an eyebrow for her to continue.

"I wasn't lying when I said I was from an alternate universe. Probably. I'm not sure, actually." Alex paused to eat the pasta. "I also wasn't lying when I said that you wouldn't believe me if I told you the truth."

"Stop being cryptic."

Alex rolled her eyes. He needed to learn patience. "Where I come from, you aren't real. You're a character on a TV show. Well, you're originally a character from a comic book, but they made a TV show on you. It's called 'Arrow'." She said bluntly.

Oliver had an incredulous expression on his face. "I'm a TV show character."

"Yeah. One of my favourites actually."

Oliver shook his head. "Even if I believe you, why would I be your favourite?"

Alex just shrugged. She didn't want to go into details about how obsessed she was in front of him. "There's also TV shows called 'The Flash', 'Supergirl' and 'Legends of Tomorrow'."

"Wow." So he believed her? What the hell? She must've looked as shocked as she was feeling because he said, "Yeah, I believe you. I can tell when someone's lying. And you're terrible at lying." At his, she made a face at him. He continued, "As unbelievable as it sounds, I believe you."

Alex nodded. "Okay." After a beat of silence, she said, "What did you tell everyone else?"

"That you were kidnapped with me." He turned to look at her. "And that you stopped him from torturing me more."

"And?"

"And that I don't know why he had you. Which is true."

Alex bit her lip. "He took me when he took Susan. I happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Why would he take you though?"

"I saw him knock Susan out. Guess he didn't need me blabbing to anyone that the district attorney was a psychopathic killer. But I don't know why he didn't just kill me. Not that I'm not happy that he didn't kill me."

Oliver nodded. "This is a nice apartment."

"Yeah I wasn't lying when I said that I had a backpack with everything I need either. Which included a shitload of money apparently. And all the legal papers I need."

He raised an eyebrow, "That's convenient."

"Tell me about it. In my universe, we don't have superheroes. We don't have time travel or dimension travel or whatever. So how the hell did someone not only transport me to this universe, but also pack essentials for me?"

"We'll figure that out later. I can introduce you to Barry's team. Maybe they can help."

Alex smiled at him. "Thank you, Oliver."

They finished their bowls of pasta, sitting in companionable silence. Alex washed the dishes and Oliver dried them.

Once they were done, she turned to him. "Do you want to stay the night? I have a guest room."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. You're welcome here anytime."

He smiled at her and nodded. "I'm going to go ahead and get some sleep. It was actually a long day." She knew he was thinking about Adrian and the disbanded team. As much as she wanted to tell him that he wasn't alone and that his team would always support him, she knew it wasn't her place. He would understand eventually. Dig would get through to him. Until then, she'd offer him her friendship since he was pushing away everyone else. She wouldn't let him feel alone even if he thought he was.

She brought him some blankets and towels, telling him he could shower there in the morning. After that, she retired to her bedroom too, hoping there wouldn't be any of the nightmares that she knew there definitely would. But with Oliver there, she felt safer than she would have if she'd been alone.

 **It's kind of a filler chapter but I really wanted to cement the bond between Oliver and Alex. I hope you liked it, and please leave a review! Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I only own Alex.**

 **6.**

 **Alex**

Of course, Alex hadn't been lucky. She'd definitely not had a dreamless sleep. She'd dreamed of Adrian Chase running a knife all over her skin. Then he'd tied her up, making her watch as he tortured Oliver. She'd gasped awake when she couldn't take the screams any longer. She sat up on the bed, realising that it had just been a dream - a nightmare, but a dream nonetheless. She was grateful that she hadn't screamed in her sleep and woken Oliver up. Alex closed her eyes, rubbing them harshly with the heels of her palm.

After a few minutes, when it became clear that she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, she slowly made her way to the kitchen. She flicked on the light and grabbed a glass of water before sitting on a stool. She wished she wasn't so weak, but she couldn't blame herself. What she'd gone through wasn't exactly a rainbow party. She was gripping on to the glass of water tightly, like her life depended on it, when she heard movement in the hall. Terror gripped her heart, making it beat wildly. She bit her lip hard to stop herself from screaming out. She went to grab the frying pan, when the intruder walked into the kitchen.

She sighed in relief when she realised that it was just Oliver. She put the frying pan back. "What are you doing up?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I could ask you the same thing but I think I know."

She looked down at her feet and swallowed. "I couldn't sleep."

He just nodded. "I had to take care of some things."

"So you didn't go to bed." She looked up at him. He'd probably waited until she was asleep before leaving.

"I did, actually, but I couldn't sleep either. There were some things I had to do before I could."

Alex nodded. She knew what it was he needed to do. Bringing in Anatoly Knyazev. She'd completely forgotten. Maybe she should've stopped him as she knew he would regret it later, but she still didn't think her advice would be welcome. He'd probably shut her out too. "You look positively tired. Do you want to eat something before going to bed? Some of the pasta is still left over."

Oliver shook his head. "I know I didn't say this earlier, but thank you. For letting me stay here for a while."

"As I said, you're always welcome here, Oliver."

He walked over and sat on the stool beside hers. "Do you want to talk about it?" He was referring to her nightmare. Alex didn't know why he cared so much. Sure, she'd been a fellow kidnapee (was that a word?), but he actually seemed to trust her. Even after her insane story. While she didn't know why, she definitely wasn't going to call him out on it. Lord knows he's bad as it is at reaching out to people.

"No. I just-I feel helpless. Knowing that he could do it all over again and nothing I could do would stop him." She took a large gulp of her water. "I've never even been in a school fight before, you know? It's hard to reconcile with the fact that I was kidnapped, and I watched him hurt you."

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. He won't hurt you next time. I won't let him."

Alex looked up at him in surprise. Why would he do such a thing for her? He barely knew her. She wasn't superhero material. Or even superhero-friend material.

He ignored the look on her face and said determinedly, "I won't."

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. Without thinking, Alex launched herself at him. She was considerably shorter than him, so she had to put her arms around his torso. After a second, she felt an arm wrap around her and his chin rested on her head, while his free hand ran down the length of her hair in a soothing motion. Alex didn't know when, but she fell asleep in his warm, safe hands.

When Alex woke up in the morning to her alarm, she was in her bed. She found an arm out to silence it, a motion so familiar, that her day felt incomplete without doing so. Oliver was sitting on her other side. His back was to the headboard. He must've fallen asleep in that position. He was slowly waking up too. She realised that Oliver had carried her back to her room and even kept watch over her. She couldn't help the surge of gratitude and affection towards him.

Before he was fully awake, Alex got out of the bed and headed to the bathroom. She took a quick shower and threw on her 'work-clothes'. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail appropriate for teaching a kindergarten class. When she walked out, Oliver was in the bathroom in the other room. She set about packing her bag with everything she would need. Once she was done, she put on the TV to watch the news, waiting for Oliver. The news was going on about how the Green Arrow had brutally killed the district attorney's wife. She let out a disgusted sound, before she changed the channel.

She was 5 minutes into watching The Simpsons when Oliver walked in, wearing a suit. That's right. He was the Mayor, he had to wear it everyday, though she couldn't imagine it being comfortable.

"Are you going to work? You should take it slow, Alex." That was the first time she'd actually heard him say her name.

"I should stop thinking about it. I can do that if I go on with my life. Plus, I can't take off two days as a kindergarten teacher, ya know? Those little brats are hard to manage, and the Headmistress will kick me out if I'm seen slacking."

Oliver chuckled. "Alright. I'll drop you on my way?"

"No, it's okay, really. I'll take my car. I can leave any time I want to then."

"If you're sure."

"Yeah. Thanks."

Alex got through the school day without any problems. It was actually only about 4 hours, since the kids tended to get a little crazy if they were kept longer. She was very grateful for that. She was just waiting with a kid - Simon, for his mom to pick him up - when John Diggle strode up to them. Alex blinked. She hadn't expected anyone to show up to her work.

Nevertheless, she smiled at him, not knowing what else to do. "Uh, hi?"

"Hi," he bit the inside of his cheek. "I'm John Diggle. We, uh, briefly met the other day, you know, with Oliver."

"Yeah, of course. I'm Alex Koller." She glanced at Simon. "Can this wait a couple minutes? Simon's mother should just be arriving."

Dig nodded, but Alex could tell that he had many questions. Apparently Oliver hadn't told him everything about her. Or maybe he had, and Dig was skeptical of her story. She didn't blame him. Hell, she was skeptical of her story. And John was just watching out for Oliver. He probably didn't know that Oliver had stayed with her, if he had, he'd have come to talk to her a lot sooner. But if Oliver didn't want anyone to know, Alex wasn't gonna tell anyone either.

Just then, a car pulled up to them. Simon waved at Alex and pecked her on the cheek before climbing into the vehicle. Alex waved back at him with a smile.

She turned to Dig, who was watching her. Freaking vigilantes and their tending to observe everything. It was kinda creepy but Alex didn't mind because she knew he was one of the good guys. Still, she'd need to be more careful.

"Uh, so, not to be rude, but why are you here?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I know whatever happened messed with Oliver, and you were there too. It must've all been very hard."

Sure, that could be part of why Dig had come, but Alex was sure that wasn't it. "I'm fine."

John raised his eyebrows. "Really? You were just kidnapped by a crazy psychopath and learned that the Mayor is the Green Arrow, and you're fine?"

Alex didn't know where he was going with this. What did he want? For her to start crying and melt into a puddle of tears? Though she wasn't sure if she wouldn't do exactly that at one point, she wasn't about to do so in front of him. "Really, Mr. Diggle, I'm fine. Although I believe Adrian Chase is in US protective custody now, and Susan Williams's statement didn't do much. So what's the point of me going to the SCPD?" Alex didn't want to lie to him, but there must've been a reason why Oliver hadn't told anyone about her yet. Also, she had a feeling that Dig wouldn't be as acceptable of her alternate-universe-explanation as Oliver had been.

John nodded, accepting her answer. Alex waited for him to say something else or leave, but he didn't do either. He just stood there looking at the ground. He looked like he was contemplating asking her something. She let him just stand in silence for a few minutes.

Finally, he asked her, "What happened with Chase? Oliver won't talk to any of us about it."

Oh. Okay. "I-I don't know exactly what he wanted with Oliver. I wasn't with them the whole time. I was in a different cell, passed out for most of the time."

"What happened when you were there?" John didn't seem like he was going to let the matter go.

Alex sighed. "He tortured him. Tried to burn off that tattoo on Oliver's chest. And he kept wanting him to confess to something. I'm not sure, really. He'd drugged me earlier and tried to torture me too." She held up her arm where the first scar was.

"Did you get that checked out by a doctor?"

"Nah. It isn't that bad. I just bandaged it at home. It's already healing." She gave him a small smile.

He smiled back briefly. "I've kept you here long enough. Thanks for telling me about what happened. I know that can't have been easier."

"You're welcome. And if you ever need a place to stay, or lie low, you're welcome at my place." She told him. "Being Spartan can't be easy, what with all the enemies you must make?"

John was surprised, but he hid it well. He chuckled softly. "I'll keep that in mind." With that, he turned around and walked away. Alex shook her head and drove her car back home. She picked up some fast food on her way for lunch.

Alex was watching the news again after finishing preparing for her class the next day. Contrary to what most people thought, kindergarten classes required a lot of prior preparation. The little brats needed something new everyday.

She was tired even though the day hadn't been very demanding. She was lying on the couch listening to the reporter ramble on. Apparently the vigilantes of Star City had stopped someone from stealing diabetes drugs. Alex knew exactly who the 'someone' was - the Bratva. She once again thought that she probably should've stopped Oliver from bringing them here. But why would he listen to her? She was lucky he even believed her story.

Alex heard a knock on the door. She walked to it and peeked through the little hole. It was Oliver. She opened it with an amused smile. "This is the first time you knocked."

"Well, I thought it would be the proper thing to do."

Alex shook her head. "I would give you a key, but I know you can break in all by yourself."

He laughed and they both walked over to sit on the couch. She handed him the bag of food from earlier. "You're a lifesaver!" He exclaimed.

Alex grinned. "So how was your day, Mr. Mayor?"

Oliver shot her an unimpressed look. "How do you think?"

"Heh, well, not great?" Her grin turned sheepish. "Hey, I totally forgot! Don't you need to change your bandages and stuff? I'll go get the medical kit."

She stood up to go, but he stopped her. "I changed it in the bunker. I'm not completely irresponsible."

Alex shrugged and sat down. "Okay, but if you need it, the kit is under the sink in the kitchen."

He smiled. "Thanks."

Oliver never talked to her about anything to do with work or the team or the Bratva that we're currently in Star City. Alex didn't mind, though. She knew she'd have to worry about it at some point, but for now, she was content just living her life as she had for the past few months.

Once Oliver was done eating, she turned to him. "So, what do you want to do?"

He looked at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you've had a not-so-great day and I've had my first kidnapping just day before yesterday. So what do you want to do for fun?"

Oliver raised a brow at the 'first kidnapping' part but chose not to comment on it. "I don't know. I don't usually have down time like this."

Alex scoffed. "You, my friend, need to let loose. You need ten years' worth down time. So we're going to do something fun."

"Right. Okay. What did you have in mind?" Oliver had an amused smile playing on his lips.

"Hm. How about bowling? Or arcade games? Or we could play board games here. I have plenty of board games. And cards." Without waiting for him to respond, Alex ran to her room to grab all the board games she owned (which was quite a lot, considering she used these while teaching) and picked up her set of cards, which happened to be UNO. She didn't know how play playing cards. Any of the games.

She walked back out into the living room precariously balancing all the games in her hands and the cover with cards hanging on her pinky. Oliver blinked at the sheer amount of games she owned, but made no move to help her carry them. He was completely amused by it all. Come to think of it, he was amused by her a lot. Alex didn't know if she was supposed to be flattered that she could make him smile or insulted. But Oliver was never broody around her, which she counted as a win.

"Choose." She set the games down on the carpet, sitting down on it herself, cross-legged.

Oliver followed her example and sat down too. "How about we start with the UNO?" He said once he'd peeked into the cover. Alex didn't respond but gestured for him to take the cards out.

They played various games until Alex finally started feeling hungry. She took her phone out and checked the time. Wow. It was dinnertime. This was the most fun she'd had in a long time. They'd spent the whole evening arguing about who was cheating and who had actually won in the games, and generally having a good time. Atleast she hoped he'd had a good time.

When Oliver noticed the time, his face seemed to fall. "I have to go. I have work."

Alex was sad, but she nodded. "Can you drop me at one of the Big Belly Burgers on your way?"

"Yeah, sure. I probably won't come back tonight."

They made their way to her car. Oliver had left his car at the bunker so as to not draw suspicion to the fact that he was staying with her. He would take her car to wherever it was he had to go and bring it back. Since the Big Belly Burger wasn't that far from her apartment, she didn't mind walking back.

When they reached the burger joint, Alex got down.

"Thanks for the 'down time'. I had a lot of fun." Oliver grinned at her.

Alex grinned back and waved at him as he sped off. She walked in and ordered her burgers before sitting down at one of the tables.

She had been mindlessly scrolling through Instagram (she was still a fangirl and still watched all her shows and read all her books. Being in the Arrowverse wasn't going to change that) when someone sat down beside her. When she looked up, she realised that it was actually three someones.

Curtis sat beside her, while Dinah and René sat across her. Alex jumped slightly before relaxing. She didn't know what to say, so she just sat there with her mouth agape.

Not surprisingly, Curtis was the one who broke the silence. "Uh, hey! You remember me from the bunker right?" Alex raised her eyebrows. "You know, the Arrow bunker? When you came in with a banged up Oliver after being kidnapped by Prometheus?" He slightly winced.

Dinah rolled her eyes at him before looking at her with a pleasant smile. "Ignore his bluntness. I'm Dinah, this," she pointed at René, "is René and I'm sure you know that's Curtis beside you."

"Um, sure. I'm Alex Koller. I-It's nice to meet you?" It came out more as a question. Alex had not prepared for meeting three more vigilantes in one day. The waitress chose that moment to bring her order to the table.

"Do you all want to order anything, dears?" She asked the vigilantes.

As they rattled off their orders, Alex wondered what they wanted with her. Deciding not to think too much, she bit into her burger. Alex had to admit that no burger from her universe could compete with Big Belly Burger. It was pure bliss.

"How are you holding up?" It was René. What was with vigilantes with an underlying motive asking her how she was? All she had left was to meet Felicity.

Alex decided she'd give them the same story she had given to Dig. She shrugged. "As good as I can be, I guess?"

"Good, good. We uh, Dig told us about talking to you earlier. And now we saw you sitting here, so we just came by to ask you how you were." Curtis rambled. "We weren't sure how you were taking all of this, you know, getting tangled up in vigilante business, cuz you're a teacher and all that."

Wow. Had everyone researched her? She shouldn't be surprised. "Thanks for checking up on me, but uh, what do you want?" She returned bluntly.

Dinah shot Curtis a glare. "What makes you think we want something?"

"Oh, just the fact that you actually sat down at my table and ordered food? And no offense, but Curtis, you're a worse liar than I am," she tried to hide her grin.

"Fine. We know that Oliver was at your apartment last night." Dinah nodded at her.

"Don't try to deny it." René added with a pointed look.

Of all the things she'd expected, that was definitely not one. "Well, yeah. He was. Is that a problem?"

"He seems to trust you. The fact that he stayed at your apartment the whole night means that he trusts you, and Oliver is not a very trusting person."

Uh, what? What did they think she did? Use the Imperious Curse on him? "I'm sorry. I don't know where you're going with this. He came to check up on me, and I offered him a place to stay."

René raised his eyebrows. "You just offered a stranger a place to stay and he accepted? Just like that?"

"Well, he is the Mayor. And also apparently the Green Arrow. He also helped me escape from my kidnapper. I think those are pretty good reasons to offer him a place to stay?"

They didn't look convinced.

"Look." Alex said looking at each one of them pointedly. "I don't know what you think I did, but he's Oliver Queen. He not only saved me from that psychopath, but he also came back to check up on me. Of course I offered him any help I could give him. I'm not using him, if that's what you're all afraid of. And if you're not going to believe me, I'm sure you know my address and where I work. If I screw him over, you can come knocking down my door with your super secret vigilante weapons, okay?"

With that, Alex got up, paid for her burger and left. She couldn't believe what had just happened. They thought she would hurt Oliver. Pfft. Yeah right. Even if she was capable of doing it, Oliver would put his entire quiver of arrows into her before she even touched him. She didn't know what to think of the encounter. Dig had been amicable earlier. What the hell was these three's problem? Maybe it was because Dig hadn't known that Oliver was staying at her apartment. Whatever it was, Alex was glad she didn't have to go through that twice.

That night, Alex didn't want to sleep because of the nightmares. She'd fallen asleep for the second time the previous night because Oliver had been there. So she spent as much time as she could on her phone, trying not to fall asleep. She found that Oliver had programmed his number into her phone sometime when she hadn't noticed. It took all of her will power to not call him. But when sleep inevitably found her, so did the nightmares. But, this time, there was no arrow-wielding vigilante to shield her from the monsters.

 **Now she's met four out of five of the remaining vigilantes!**

 **I'm going to be updating my other fanfics for some time (if I can get myself to stay away from this one. I'm obsessed with this fic!), so this chapter is longer than usual.**

 **Hope you liked the chapter and thanks for reading! Leave a review!**


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow or any of the characters except Alex.

7.

Alex

It had been about a week since Alex last talked to Oliver. He hadn't come to her apartment, so she figured he was busy with Arrow work. He must've reinstated the team because she saw on the news that Adrian Chase was a wanted criminal and the throwing star killer. Alex went about her days normally - teaching kids in the morning, and learning new recipes of pasta in the evening. She tried her hand at guitar at one point in the week and quickly realised it wasn't for her.

Though Alex tried not to let it bother her, she was worried that Oliver hadn't contacted her in days. She knew he was alive, mostly because the Green Arrow was always on the news. Also, if the mayor was dead, every person in Star City would know it.

Currently, Alex was sitting on her plush blue couch wrapped up in her sky blue comforter. She had a cup of hot chocolate in one hand and a copy of Queen of Air and Darkness in the other. The TV was playing in the background at low volume. Alex was about to start reading the book when something on TV caught her attention.

Adrian Chase, the district attorney who was recently revealed by an anonymous source to be The Throwing Star killer, is still at large. The entire country is on high alert for this individual. Mayor Queen has given a statement that Chase's allegations that the Green Arrow was responsible for the death of his wife are false. As Chase is currently on the run from law enforcement, his allegations against the Green Arrow are null and void.

Alex smirked. She was pretty sure that this was one thing Chase hadn't been prepared for. She decided she would call Oliver and congradulate him on the win.

Alex unwrapped herself from her warm coccoon and set the book and her cup of steamy, hot goodness down on the small table beside the couch. She walked to the balcony attached to her bedroom with her phone. She ran her fingers swiftly on the screen, finding Oliver's number and dialling. As she waited for Oliver to pick up, she looked out at the city. Star City was a dark place. She had known that even before being transported here, but the sheer sense of foreboding that the city emanated surprised her. She knew Gotham was darker, but Star City was still daunting. A young boy, who Alex was pretty sure lived a few floors below her, was playing with a basketball by himself. He would dribble the ball a few times before launching it at the wall and then repeat the actions. Alex was lost in watching the kid's movements when Oliver finally answered.

"What's wrong? Are you alright?" He didn't bother with a greeting.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Um, yeah. Everything's fine. You didn't come to the apartment the past week. So I wanted to check up on you."

"I'm just busy with you-know-what."

"Right. Yeah, of course. I was watching the news. Good work on exposing Chase. I see Felicity figured out how to unscramble the photo."

Oliver paused for a moment. "Yeah, she did."

He was being rather short with her. He was always genuine and nice around her. Alex found that she hated it when Oliver was cross with her. "Oliver," Alex bit her lip, "are you sure everything is alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it is."

Both of them were silent, Alex waiting for Oliver to continue and Oliver thinking about how he should phrase what he wanted to say.

"I was actually wondering when you'd finally start telling us what you know. From the TV show." Alex sighed internally. So that's why he was angry - because she hadn't volunteered information. Alex closed her eyes. Her time to stay out of the vigilante business was over. She knew it was selfish, but could anyone blame her? She liked to stay alive, and that was done by staying out of whatever the Arrow always got himself tangled into. But she knew she would eventually have to join in. So why the hell not do it now? "We need all the help we can get against Chase."

Alex ran her hand over the railing. "I'll come by the Arrowcave in some time." She was pretty sure he had rolled his eyes at her use of 'Arrowcave'. "I'll tell everyone on the team who I am, and I'll tell you everything I remember from the show."

"Okay." Atleast he didn't sound as cross as he did at the beginning of the call. She supposed that was progress.

Before he could hang up, Alex continued. "Oliver? Thank you - for not telling the others and for giving me some time. I'm sorry I took so long. I know you could've used my help long ago."

"I'm just glad you decided to help now. I'll see you in the bunker." And he hung up.

Alex stood there, leaning against the railing, for a few more minutes. Then she peeled herself away and changed out of her pajamas. She wore a thick, lavender sweater over her clothes to fend off the cool, evening air. She drained her cup of hot chocolate, grabbed her car keys and set out to the Arrowcave.

When Alex reached the bunker with bags of takeout (apparently she would never meet Oliver without some offer of food), she found that the elevator wasn't working. Confused, she tried calling him, but the call didn't go through. What the hell? Hadn't he just asked her to come by? Alex walked around a little before she found the emergency stairs. Worried that something might've happened, she ran down the stairs, pocketing her car keys. When she reached a door, she tried to open it with no success. After a few minutes of failing, she resorted to banging her fists against the door a yelling out Oliver's name.

She didn't have to wait long for a response. "Alex?" Oliver sounded winded.

"What's going on? Why isn't there power only in this building?"

"Oh my god! Is she there? She can get in touch with the rest of the team!" It sounded like Felicity.

Oh shit. This was that episode where Oliver and Felicity were trapped in the Cave. If Oliver had been mad earlier, he'd definitely be furious with her after this for not telling him everything she knew earlier. In her defence, Alex had watched all the episodes of Season 5 only once. And that was months ago. She couldn't be expected to remember everything, especially not in order.

"Alex!" Oliver's shout brought her out of her thoughts. "Go to City Hall and tell Quentin that we're trapped in the bunker. He can tell the rest of the team and they'll figure out how to get us out of here. We can't stay here very long, we're going to run out of air. Hurry!"

Alex nodded frantically before realising that he couldn't see her. "Yeah! I'm going. Just hang in there! Don't die!"

Without waiting for a response, Alex ran up the stairs and jumped into her car. She pulled out of the alley she had parked in and sped off towards City Hall as Oliver had instructed. She went as fast as she could without getting a ticket. That was the last thing any of them needed.

Alex pulled into the same parking lot she had been kidnapped from by Chase. The memory brought a shudder, but she suppressed it. She could not think about it now. Oliver and Felicity needed her help. She ran up to the front desk and demanded to speak to Quentin Lance.

"Do you have an appointment, miss?"

"No!" Alex almost shouted. "But this is important. Very important." She even gestured with her hand to emphasize her point, but the lady didn't seem to be phased.

"Miss, Deputy Mayor Lance is a very busy man. You can't meet him without an appointment."

"You don't understand! He's going to want to hear this! I have to tell him-"

"I'm sorry, miss. I'll see when I can get you an appointment." She started to look through the papers on her desk.

While she busy, Alex ran further into the building. She found Quentin's office just as shouts of "Miss! You can't be in here!" sounded behind her. Alex ignored the calls and slammed the door open. The Deputy Mayor was sitting at his desk looking at some very official looking files. When he heard her, his head snapped up as he moved to stand up. Alex quickly walked to his desk.

"Oliver and Felicity are trapped in the bunker."

At that moment, desk lady came in. "I'm sorry, sir, but she barged in here despite my telling her not to." She turned to Alex. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, miss."

Alex looked at Quentin with urgency written all over her face. He took a long look at her before telling desk lady that it was alright. As she left, Alex visibly sighed in relief.

"There's no time. You have to call the rest of the team and tell them that Oliver and Felicity are trapped in the bunker. They don't have much air."

Quentin must've sensed the importance of the situation because he immediately called René. He relayed everything Alex told him, while Alex stood there played with the stray strands of her sweater, shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

When Lance was done, Alex scratched the back of her neck. "I'm Alex, by the way." She held out her hand.

Quentin shook her hand with both eyebrows raised. "You're the one who was kidnapped with Susan Williams."

Alex nodded. "Uh, I guess I should go back to the bunker. I was going there to meet Oliver. That's when I realized they were trapped."

"Alright. Here's my number. Call me when they're safe." He handed her his card, which Alex accepted with a smile.

"See you later, Quentin."

This time when Alex reached the Cave, she found some equipment lying around. She looked around, but no one was there so she tried shouting out to Oliver and Felicity but she got no response. So she decided to wait there for the team to come back and rescue them. She knew they would make it out so she wasn't as worried she could have been. The bags of takeout were still there so Alex sat down and ate when John, René and Dinah showed up.

"You're finally here. I don't think they have much time down there." Alex finished her fries.

"What are you doing here?" Dinah asked her.

Alex shrugged. "Oliver called me. I found out they were trapped and told Quentin, who told you."

"You know they're trapped and you're casually eating fries?" Dig looked so incredulous that Alex almost laughed.

"I was just waiting for you guys."

He just shook his head and they proceeded to set up the cable. Alex stood next to them, looking down the hole of whatever-it-was through which the two would be rescued.

John jumped forward, catching the ladder on the other end. "Nice jump, Dig." René called out to him.

As if to contradict his statement, the ladder gave out and John slid down with it, but he was able to hold on.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" Alex cried out.

"I'm good." She should get used to situations like these. How these guys were able to stay calm was beyond her, but she supposed it all came with practice. Maybe she'd be badass like them one day. Hah! Who was she kidding? She'd probably faint if her support climbing down two storeys gave out.

"Oliver! Oliver!"

"Yeah!" Oliver's voice sounded from below. Alex looked down again to see him carrying Felicity on his back. That's right. She'd lost movement of her legs when Chase set off the EMP in the bunker earlier. Oliver was panting with the effort. He looked like heh was seriously hurt, but he was still carrying Felicity. Alex couldn't fathom the amount of hardship one had to face to reach that level of endurance.

"Hey! Hey. You guys alright?"

"No, not really."

Alex snorted, earning herself a glare from Dinah. She immediately clamped her mouth shut and looked back down. Oliver was preparing to launch himself across the five foot gap to catch Dig's hand. Alex crossed her fingers behind her back. The ventilation system turned back on. As Oliver jumped, Felicity lost her grip on him.

"You have to let me go!" She sounded terrified.

No! Alex screamed in her mind.

"You have to let me go!" Felicity said again.

"I'm sorry Felicity." Alex looked at Oliver in horror. "I know you hate it when I don't listen to you." Alex rolled her eyes. Did he have to be so dramatic? He pulled her up, groaning at the effort.

"René, pull us up."

When it was finally done, they all piled into the van to go to ARGUS. Alex had been right - Oliver had lost a lot of blood but she didn't know how. She handed Felicity and him the food she'd bought earlier. They had been trapped down there a long time and exerted themselves a lot. Oliver shot her a grateful look and Felicity mumbled a thanks before devouring it.

At ARGUS, Oliver was taken into surgery while the rest of them waited. Dig went to talk to Lyla in the corridor, so she was left sitting with Dinah, René, Curtis and Felicity. The silence was awkward and the only thought running inside Alex's mind was that ARGUS should invest in better lighting.

As always, Curtis spoke first. "What were you doing in the bunker in first place?" It was directed at her.

"I'd told Oliver that I'd stop by to explain a couple of things."

"Like the fact that you don't exist before seven months?" Felicity questioned.

Alex blinked. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, that. And uh, a couple other things. Actually I had to talk to all of you. But, you know, I can't do that now. I'll tell everyone once Oliver's awake and in prime condition."

They didn't seem to let it go but at that moment, Lyla came in telling them that Oliver was stable.

"Can we see him?" Felicity asked.

"Actually he asked to see you."

Aw. Olicity was OTP but Alex would never say it out loud in this universe. Maybe.

"Ooh!" Curtis cooed. When everyone gave him a pointed look to knock it off, he defended himself. "We were all thinking that!" Looks like she wasn't the only one who shipped those two. Hell, everyone shipped those two.

Alex walked back into the waiting room and sat on the couch. She pulled out her phone, looking at pictures of her and her best friend. She'd stopped herself from looking at any pictures of her old universe, but seeing that everyone here had someone else, she was feeling alone.

These pictures were taken in Cathy's house. They were sitting on the roof with their legs dangling over the side, making goofy faces at the camera. Cathy's younger sister, Cora had taken the photo. Alex, while not as close to Cora as she was to Cathy, she adored the girl. She swiped through the pictures with tears in her eyes. Before anyone noticed, Alex wiped them away. She missed her friend and her family so much, but she didn't let herself feel it. If she did, she would break down and stop functioning because she might never see them again. Before she did exactly that, she put her phone away. She was grateful she'd brought her book.

As Alex was engrossed in the novel, she felt the couch dip beside her. She looked up to see Oliver sitting there as if he hadn't been in surgery this whole time.

Her inner mother hen kicked in full-force. "You should be resting! Why are you even awake right now, Oliver? You should be heavily sedated and sleeping! You lost so much blood earlie-"

"I'm alright! I've been through much worse, Alex."

"That does not mean you can go around gallivanting across rooftops in green leather!"

Felicity chuckled. "I've tried telling him that for years now, but he never listened." Everyone had amused smiles on their faces.

Oliver rolled his eyes at the blonde before turning back to Alex, his expression serious. She got the message that they should have the conversation she'd gone to the bunker to have.

She bit her lip. "Okay. So, you all know I'm Alex Koller. I'm eighteen. A teacher at a kindergarten."

Oliver nudged her elbow to continue. Everyone had expectant looks.

"I'm also from another universe, I think, because that's the only explanation I have." She looked at Felicity. "That's why I didn't exist seven months ago." She answered her earlier question. "I don't know how, but I got transported into this universe, with a backpack of essentials, like all my legal papers and money."

"Isn't that a little convenient?" Curtis asked. He, like everyone other than Oliver looked skeptical.

This was the exact same conversation she'd had with Oliver a week ago at her apartment. She was glad she had waited before telling anyone else because she didn't want to do it again. She'd let Oliver explain to anyone else that needed to know.

"That's what Oliver said. I know it doesn't sound very plausible but there's actually more." Alex looked at Oliver. He motioned for her to keep talking so Alex took a deep breath.

"In my universe, there's a TV show. It's called 'Arrow' and it's about you guys. Oliver, mainly, but it's about all of you."

This time, they definitely didn't believe her.

"No way. You expect us to believe that not only did you get transported here with everything you need, but also know everything about us because we're a TV show? Yea, no way." René sounded incredulous, but also a little angry.

Alex licked her lips and swallowed. "I know it doesn't sound very believable, okay? I'm not stupid. I have no reason to lie to you. Especially because you're the only ones who can possibly help me get back to my universe." She turned to look at Felicity. "If you want proof, I can show you pictures of my graduation from high school. You can look it up. I don't exist here, but my school does. If the photos are engineered, you'd be able to tell, right?" Alex opened the pictures on her phone and handed it to the blonde hacker.

"I'll look at them when we get back to the bunker." She said quietly.

They still didn't believe her, so Alex continued on. "I could tell you something about yourselves that not many people know. Actually, I don't know much about you three," she pointed at the newest recruits, "because you just joined the show this season. But I know things about Oliver, Felicity and John."

"That won't be necessary, Alex." Oliver out a hand on her shoulder. "I've told you before - I believe you."

Alex took deep breaths and nodded to him. She'd gotten pretty worked up trying to convince them. It was silent one again. It was obvious that the rest were still skeptical about her, but they didn't say anything.

Dig, who had been quiet throughout the whole exchange spoke up. "Hell. There's a guy who can run superfast over water and another guy who can create portals with his mind. This is entirely possible." He shook his head. "I believe you."

Wow. Alex had thought Dig would be the hardest to convince. She let out a shaky breath and smiled at him, silently thanking him.

After a beat, she gathered her things and turned to Oliver. "Now that you're fine, I'm going to head back to my apartment. I'll tell you everything I know about Chase tomorrow. You need to get some rest."

She turned to Felicity. "I need my phone. I promised Quentin that I would call him once everything here was okay." Felicity wordlessly handed the phone and Alex took it with a feeble smile. She waved at everyone.

She caught a cab back to the bunker where her car was parked. She got in and called the Deputy Mayor. Once the call ended, she rested her head on the steering wheel. Now she was in. There was no turning back. She had chosen to help the team. Alex didn't think she would survive very long in this universe. She was a nobody who was caught up in a dangerous game between a psychopath and a hero. She couldn't defend herself, and though Oliver had promised that he wouldn't let anything happen to her, she still felt alone in this universe. He had other priorities over her. She cried silently for a few minutes before gathering herself up and driving to her apartment. She passed out on the bed before she could even change her clothes.


	8. Chapter 8

**I think I'll be putting my Merlin and Percy Jackson fanfiction on a hold for some time because I'm focused on this one. I hope you enjoyed the previous chapter. Here's the next one.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the Arrowverse.**

 **8.**

 **Alex**

Alex was in the nice, quaint coffee shop that she passed everyday on her way to and from the kindergarten. She wasn't much of a coffee or tea drinker. She drank them very occasionally but she was a huge hot chocolate enthusiast. Her day never ended without her smelling the sweet aroma of cocoa atleast twice. She always had a stock of cream, milk and cocoa powder (or chocolate syrup, on occasion) in her kitchen. Even after landing in the Arrowverse, this habit hadn't changed. She also made it a point to visit this particular cafe everyday after finishing up with her classes. So that's what she was doing now. As the guy behind the counter set her mug down, she grinned widely at him. She saw him almost everyday, they had a small conversation about how each other's day was going before he gave her her mug of goodness. She'd tip him big and as she exited, both of their days would be much better than how it was before.

She sat down at her usual table in a corner near a window. It was her favourite spot apart from the roof of her apartment building. The shop was cozy and reminded her of the small cafe she used to visit on a weekly basis with Cathy. She wondered if she was reported missing is her universe. She knew her parents, sister and Cathy would be completely torn up because of her disappearance. She hoped that whoever sent her here left a life model decoy or doppleganger of her back home. But she also wished that they didn't. She hoped that she was important enough in their lives that no copy could replace. Thinking about it all made her head hurt so she stayed away from the topic.

Alex finished her hot chocolate, smiled at the-guy-behind-the-counter (she never learned his name) in farewell and got into her car. She plugged her phone to the car and blasted her favourite songs in full volume, and headed to the Arrowcave.

"- has my vote." Felicity was saying as the elevator doors opened.

Everyone turned to look at her. Dinah and René were missing though. She gave everyone an awkward wave and after a few moments of silence, she cleared her throat. "What are we voting on?"

Oliver gestured for her to come inside. "All the criminals Chase prosecuted have been released."

Alex raised her eyebrows. "Oh. Well I don't actually remember that happening. Sorry."

"Didn't you say you watched the TV show?" Curtis shot.

Alex leaned against a pillar. "I did, but that was about seven months ago. And I watched it only once, so you can't expect me to remember everything that happened." No one looked happy. Alex bit her lip. "I do remember all the important events, even if it isn't chronological."

"He sent a 15 year old skeleton to my office today. Do you know anything about that?" Oliver asked her.

Alex winced. She'd hoped that episode had already happened. How was she supposed to tell him that his father was a murderer? "Uh, don't be mad- at anyone. I do know what that's about. I don't remember who's it was exactly but I know why he sent it to you."

Again, there was silence. God, this team had to learn better communication skills. "It's someone your dad killed." Alex looked anywhere but at Oliver. She knew she was being tactless and blunt, but there was no other way to say it. When she looked up, Oliver looked mad. Positively raged. His face was neutral but the look in his scared her.

He took a step towards her. "What did you say?"

Alex swallowed. "I-It was an accident. He didn't do it on purpose."

"My father is not a killer." He looked like he was trying to stop himself from putting an arrow in her. Alex didn't know what to do, so she just stood there, not meeting Oliver's eye. "He never would have killed anybody in cold blood." He was right in front of her now. Alex thought she would start hyperventilating with the intensity of his voice. Now she knew what it felt like to have Oliver Queen actually angry at you. It was terrifying.

When Oliver gripped her shoulder - the one Chase had cut into, Alex winced and looked up at him.

"Why would you say that my father killed someone?" Now his voice was devoid of any emotion. If Alex wasn't scared earlier, she was pretty sure she'd wet her pants now. She bit her lip hard to keep herself from crying out from the pain in her shoulder. So much for Oliver trusting her and promising to protect her. She tasted blood, and was about to apologize again when Felicity cut in.

"Oliver." He didn't look away from Alex and she found that she couldn't look away either.

When she couldn't stop herself from screaming any longer, Alex whispered. "Stop. You're hurting me, Oliver. Oliver!"

He finally let go. Alex's hand immediately flew to her shoulder. Oliver stepped back from her and turned around to face the others. "Dinah's working the evidence. If we get a lead, we move." With that, Curtis left and Oliver went to talk to Felicity. He was completely ignoring Alex. She knew he would be hurt by the accusation at his father, but she didn't think he would hurt her for it.

She was still rooted to the same spot after Oliver left. She snapped back to reality when Felicity cleared her throat. She shook herself before pulling out her phone and handing it to the hacker. "My graduation photos are on it. You can verify them." Her voice wavered throughout the sentence.

Felicity plugged the phone to the computer and Alex sat on the couch at the side. She peeked at her shoulder, lifting up the sleeve and found finger-shaped red marks that would definitely bruise. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. She should not be mad at Oliver. It wasn't his fault how he'd reacted. She should've been more tactful. But she knew he would find out the truth today. He would find evidence that he couldn't deny. Alex wished she could erase that stupid video. Oliver didn't need guilt from other people. He carried enough of it himself.

"You know, maybe you should've got him food like the other day. Would've lessened the strength of the blow." Felicity was turned in her chair, looking at her. The computer behind her was going through some algorithm and a picture of Alex and Cathy in their graduation caps was beside it.

Alex's shoulders sagged and she leaned her head back on the top of the couch's back, staring at the ceiling. "I know, I know, it was extremely insensitive and I am a horrible person and I deserve to fall into a bar of acid."

"Well, maybe that's a little harsh but you definitely could've said it better."

"I'm sorry, okay! How the hell was I supposed to tell him something like that? Did you want me to lie to him? 'Hey, Oli. Listen, I don't know why Chase sent that skeleton but it's definitely not because your father killed the man.' Look, I came here to help you guys. Maybe this wasn't the best way to go about it but I won't lie to him. I came here to tell you everything I know and remember from the show. If he wants to hate me for it, then he can. Actually, no. If he ever looks that angry at me again I would run away from Star City, hell probably from this continent, but that's beside the point. I'm going to help in any way I can and the only way I know right now is to tell you everything." Her hands flew out to her sides to emphasize her point.

"Wow. I think you stole my prize of having the ability to speak for a whole minute in one breath." Felicity was smirking.

Alex rolled her eyes. "What's the computer say? Am I cleared of suspicion yet?"

Just then, a ping sounded from the monitors. "Let's find out." The blonde's heels clicked across the room and Alex followed her. "Well, it's legit. Unless you have some mad computer skills that surpass mine, you're legit."

Alex smiled. "I don't think Tony Stark has computer skills that surpass yours, Felicity."

"Eh, probably." Felicity winked at her.

Alex chuckled. "And so modest."

The blonde shrugged in a 'what can you say?' way. Felicity went back to looking at the computer and they both sat in comfortable silence until Alex broke it again.

"Uh, hey, Felicity?" The blonde swivelled around in her chair to look at the teen. "There's something actually important that Oliver needs to know. But after today, I don't know how he'll take it coming from me."

Felicity raised her eyebrows. "Something worse than that bombshell you dropped?"

"Yeah, well. You decide. Chase got to William." She played with the strings of her hoodie. "I don't know if he already did or if he's going to do it now, but in the show, Chase had William."

Felicity had paled. "Are you sure? Even I couldn't find him. Samantha hid him very well. How could Chase manage to find them? Alex, this is huge. We have to tell Oliver."

"I don't know how. They don't show that on the show. And I know Oliver should know, just not from me. I really don't want to piss him off further."

The blonde sighed. "He can't stay mad forever. Especially if what you said is true. He'll just be mad at himself."

Alex nodded sadly. "I know. But none of this is his fault."

"You should still be the one to tell Oliver about William. I don't have any proof that Chase has him, and you don't need any."

It was Alex's turn to sigh. She ran her hand through her hair - nervous habit, but eventually nodded. "I'm going to head out now. I don't really have much work here and if Oliver is even half as mad as he was earlier, I don't think I want to be here when he comes back."

Alex gathered some of paper and her lesson plans (yes, she had lesson plans for kindergarteners) and went back to the coffee shop. Expresso was the calmest place aside from her apartment and the library in her school building where she was comfortable enough to relax. She ordered a hot chocolate (surprise!) and went over the plans, making changes where she felt necessary. Once she was done, she ordered two muffins because she was starving. Finishing up, she went back to her apartment changed into more comfortable clothes. She decided to spend the rest of the night watching the last season of Teen Wolf again.

Halfway through the season, she remembered to clean her shoulder wound. She wore a tank top so that the bandage wouldn't be disturbed. Then she fell asleep with her blue comforter around her, Teen Wolf still playing on the TV.

Alex woke up the next morning to the faint sound of her annoying alarm. She blearily stumbled to her room to shut it off. She showered and got dressed for the day before pouring herself a cup of cereal and milk. She had decided to take Scrabble with her that day to help the kids with spellings.

The class went on without a hitch. The kids actually enjoyed the activity because they didn't complain much. Alex smiled to herself as one little redheaded girl corrected Simon's spelling of Crocodile.

When it was time to leave, all the kids ran out of the room after waving at her. She glanced around at the mess and sighed. If there was one thing Alex hated, it was cleaning up. But now that she was a teacher (and an adult), there was no way around it. She knelt down and started picking up the pieces when someone else knelt in front of her. She looked up to meet Oliver's blue eyes and a hesitant smile.

She quickly stood up and Oliver followed her. "Are you alright?" She asked him. By now, he would've seen the video Chase sent. Alex couldn't imagine how she'd react if she found out her father had killed someone.

Oliver let out a small disbelieving laugh. "I'm the one who hurt you yesterday and you're asking me if I'm okay?"

There was no way Oliver should know that she was hurt. She hadn't even told Felicity about it after everyone left. She feigned confusion. "Wh-You didn't hurt me."

"Stop. I was at your apartment last night after everything happened. You were sleeping on the couch with fresh bandages around your shoulder - the same shoulder I bruised yesterday." Oliver was shaking his head.

"After everything that happened?" Alex questioned, trying to change the topic.

He smiled at her poor attempt at doing so, but went along, nonetheless. "You didn't watch the news? We got him. Chase is in an ARGUS prison now." He looked so happy and relieved that Alex almost didn't want to tell him what would happen next. But then she remembered what she'd told Felicity.

"That's great, Oliver." She tried to smile back but it came out as a grimace.

And Oliver being Oliver, he zeroed in on it. "What's wrong? He's in prison. He can't escape ARGUS custody."

"There's something you need to know. ARGUS might have Chase, but he won't stay there for long." Alex took a deep breath. It was now or never. "He has William, Oliver. He's going to get out of the prison and he's going to take everyone - including William - to Lian Yu. He's got some people working for him."

Alex couldn't help but feel guilty at his devastated expression. "How did he find William? Felicity told me that Samantha had hidden him so well that no one can find him."

"I'm sorry, Oliver. I know this is the last thing you want to hear right now. I don't know how he got to him but he's got Black Siren and Evelyn and Talia working with him. He's going to kidnap everyone on the team."

Oliver ran a tired hand over his face. "Do you know where he has my son?"

Alex shook her head. "Apparently it wasn't an important enough detail to add."

"It's still so weird how you know so much." When he saw her hurt expression, he quickly added, "not that I'm not grateful or that I don't believe you."

Alex gave him a small smile. "You know if Cathy was here, she'd be so psyched. She'd spend all her time either in the bunker or glued to you." Her focus became distant as she remembered her friend, the smile remaining on her face.

"Is Cathy your sister?" Oliver asked her hesitantly.

"She might as well be." She laughed. "She's my best friend. We tell each other everything. If she got to know I got kidnapped by a comic book villain, she'd go into super mama bear mode first and then tease the shit outta me later. God, I miss her."

Oliver squeezed her shoulder in comfort. "We'll find you a way home. As soon as this thing with Chase is over, we'll work on it. Is there anything you know that can help us?"

"Not really. I know he's going to blow up the island in the end, with everyone on it. That's how the season ended. But Oliver, he's not the only one with allies. He may kidnap people on the team but you have other friends too."

He looked up at her. "Nyssa will help."

Alex nodded. "There's actually two more people. Now you might not want them with you, but you'll need them."

"Who?"

"Um, Malcolm Merlyn and Slade Wilson. There's also this other guy you recruit who I think turns on you. I don't remember correctly but I don't think you should take the risk."

Oliver looked resigned. "Malcolm might help us if Thea's in danger. But why would Slade? I locked him on the same island that had us captive."

"After Felicity shot him with the cure, he's not a crazy psychopathic murderer hell-bent on revenge anymore. The mirakuru turned him into that. He'll help you - especially if you get him out of there. I can't imagine solitary confinement is very good to him." Alex pointed out.

"Everytime I think we've won, Chase has something else up his sleeve. But this time, we're ahead of him. I think we can beat him." Oliver's face held determination. Alex couldn't help but smile. She nodded to him and patted his hand as he left, and went back to picking up the pieces of the game.

\- Clairvoyant -

Alex was watching reruns of FRIENDS. She had a bowl of chips and a coke next to her. She was sitting on the floor, her back resting against the couch. She was laughing at some lame comment Joey made when she heard the noise. It was ear piercing and sent her flying into the wall to her left.

Black spots danced in her vision and she struggled to sit up. When she tried to massage her head, her hand met with a sticky red liquid. Blood. She almost fainted right then but managed to stay conscious. Her entire side hurt and the world was spinning. Black boots walked into view and with difficulty, she cranes her neck upward to see who it was. The sadistic smirk on Laurel Lance's face was the last thing she saw before the blonde's hand shot out to bash her head into the wall again and everything went dark.

\- Clairvoyant -

When Alex came to, her head felt like it was stuffed with a basketball. There was a huge bump on it and it hurt like hell. Why was she always getting kidnapped?

She looked around to see that she was sitting and something was strapping her to the seat. She was in a car next to Laurel Lance. Not the nice, sweet Black Canary. It was cruel, sadistic Black Siren. Said blonde was smirking at her in amusement. What the hell had Alex done to deserve being in a car with Black Siren as she was being kidnapped for the second time in three weeks?

Don't get her wrong. Alex was terrified but the pain in her entire body was making it hard to express her fear. So she snapped, "What do you want with me?"

"Oh, so straightforward. I like it." Siren smirked wider.

"What. Do. You. Want?"

Siren clicked her tongue. "I'd be nicer to me if I were you. I did just kidnap you."

Alex just glared at the blonde, ignoring the dizziness she was feeling.

The older woman rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you know what I want, sweety. We're almost reaching the van. Better eat up by then." She handed her a granola bar.

Alex clenched her jaw and stubbornly shook her head. She immediately regretted the action as her vision swam. After a few moments of recomposing herself, she saw that the blonde had put the bar on the dashboard in front of her. Grudgingly, she ate it. It wouldn't help anyone if she was unconscious. The whole while, Siren was smirking that annoying smirk that just looked _wrong_ on Laurel.

They reached the van in a few minutes. Siren thrust her into the vehicle with no warning. Not for the first time, Alex imagined herself punching the bitch in her face. But wisely, Alex didn't react more than expelling a groan as she met Thea's confused expression. Siren pushed her onto the floor of the cage before kneeling down next to her and patting her hair. "Good girl."

Alex grinded her teeth to stop an insult from escaping while the blonde just laughed at her. She glared daggers at the older woman as she locked the caged and left. Alex just hoped she could save Samantha and Malcolm. Sure, Malcolm wasn't exactly the nicest person around but he was Thea's father and as much as she denied it, his loss would hurt her. Plus, Alex liked his character from the show.

Quentin kneeled next to her this time, placing his hand on her shoulder. Alex flinched before realising who it was. "Sorry." She said in a small voice.

The Deputy Mayor shook his head. "You look like hell." Alex snorted. So that's what bluntness felt like when it was directed at you.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" It came from Thea.

Alex folded her legs under her to get comfortable in the van. She smiled at the other girl. "Oh, hi! We haven't met yet, cuz you weren't in the city or something. I'm Alex."

The brunette raised her eye at Alex's enthusiasm before responding. "I'm Thea. Not to be rude, but why are you here?"

"It's a long story, but we don't have much time. I'm not sure how much Oliver told any of you, but we're being taken to Lian Yu. Chase has everyone kidnapped as leverage including Oliver's son." Thea's eyes widened while Quentin just looked tired. "We don't have a choice but to go to the island. But once there, we need to find everyone else and go to some ship that Slade knows where it is. I'm sorry I don't remember exactly what it is, but I'm sure we need to get to it cuz the island is rigged with explosives." Alex breathed out.

Both the other occupants of the van were staring at her with their mouths agape but before they could say anything, the door opened.

"Let's go." And with that, they were off to Purgatory.

 **Alright kiddos. One or two more chapters and season 5 is over. I'm not writing one chapter per episode. I'm stopping the chapters wherever I feel like they should end.**

 **I hope you're all enjoying it. Leave a review and follow. Until next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm back with chapter 9! Thanks for all the reviews and follows. I hope you'll stay here till the end.**

 **Disclaimer: You know the drill. Don't own anything except Alex, some minor characters and how they fit into the storyline.**

 **9.**

 **Alex**

Once on the island (the whole place gave Alex the creeps - not that it wasn't rational), Thea, Quentin and Alex were blindfolded. After walking for about 20 minutes, Talia's men shoved them roughly on the ground. Siren had run off to wherever and Alex was secretly glad that the metahuman wasn't there right then. She had been able to explain to Thea who she was during the walk, with Quentin's help. Like any sane person, she had been skeptical but bought it.

Her hands were cuffed and her blindfold was taken off. She looked around, squinting against the sun. To her left was Curtis, and to her right were Thea, Quentin, Felicity and Dig, who were all doing the same.

"Diggle, Felicity!" Curtis exclaimed.

Felicity sat up from where she had been roughly shoved. "I'm okay. Are you okay?"

Quentin grunted. "We're fine. A little north of pissed off, though." Alex smiled despite the situation. Good ol' Quentin Lance.

"René, Dinah - where are they?" Diggle asked looking around. Huh. Why weren't all of them kept in the same place? Maybe they were in those cage things with Samantha.

"Not here." Thea answered.

They all heard a rustling behind them and turned to watch Adrian Chase walk towards them, a sword strapped to his back and probably other innumerable amount of weapons on his person. Behind him were Black Siren and Evelyn Sharpe. Just looking at the girl made Alex's blood boil. She shot her a glare to only receive a smirk in return.

"Relax." Chase walked in front of them with his signature cocky smirk. "Enjoy the weather." He laughed, stopping right in front of Alex and winking at her. Alex tried her hardest to not whimper. Seeing Chase brought back all the memories from being held captive and tortured. The ever present nightmares did nothing to help. She held his gaze defiantly until he trained his eye on Felicity. "Miss Smoak."

Curtis piped up. "Anybody ever tell you how much you suck at life?" A sword was promptly pointed at his neck. Alex struggled not to roll her eyes at him.

"No. Care to be the first?" That shut Curtis up pretty quickly. The chains on Alex's wrists were really tight. She was sure they would leave red marks for atleast the next two weeks. How was she supposed to explain these in the kindergarten? Alex mentally shook her head. She had to get out of here alive. Chain marks were the least of her problems.

"Why are we here?" Thea asked him forcefully.

Adrian's eyes sparkled. "So you recognize this place. That's good."

Then he turned his god awful eyes on Alex again "Miss Koller. Good to see you again." Alex's heart raced. She never wanted to be his prisoner again. Scratch that. She never wanted to be in the same continent as him again.

But apparently the universe - or Chase, rather - had other plans for her. "You've been holding out on me. Told you you'd tell me all your secrets. Now's the time." His eyes glinted dangerously. He signalled to Evelyn and the teen hauled Alex up to her feet. Alex struggled but it didn't help much. She sent a panicked glance to the rest of them.

"Leave her alone!" Quentin shouted. Chase just laughed as he began to walk.

Shit. Alex wouldn't be any help if she wasn't around the others. So she did the only natural thing. "Be careful of the mines, Thea!" And then she was dragged off while said brunette looked at her confused. The others just shot her helpless looks and she tried to smile back reassuringly.

As they went, Chase didn't look back at her once. Alex was infinitely grateful for that. The guy was scary. After some time, Alex's legs became sore (screw her! She never had to exercise back home) and she stumbled over a rock. Evelyn managed to catch her roughly around the upper arm and shove her up. She stumbled a bit more but managed to regain her balance, shooting a glare at the girl.

Evelyn rolled her eyes. "Your glare is as intimidating as a poodle." Siren laughed and even Adrian smirked.

Alex grit her teeth. "Better to have a poodle's glare than be a coward and betray my friends."

She should've expected it - she really should have - but she didn't. Alex was shoved against a tree with Evelyn's hand across her throat. Pain shot up Alex's back and she groaned.

"Can't handle the truth?" She grit out.

Evelyn pulled her back and shoved her against the tree again. This time Alex cried out from the pain but kept going. "Is that all you can do? Throw a couple of punches when faced with the truth? Beat up some people to run away from your problems?"

The girl had murder in her eyes but Alex just smirked. She knew that she was provoking the girl but she didn't want to stop. Someone had to tell her like it was. Dread settled in her stomach when Evelyn pulled her hand back to punch her but Chase stopped her. "Evelyn."

Said girl reluctantly lowered her hand and released Alex before stalking away. Alex took shuddering breaths and hunched over to ease the pain in her back. This time, Chase himself grabbed her arm to drag her along.

"You know, Alex? I can call you Alex right? You've got fire in you. I was impressed the first time around when you threw yourself in front of Oliver to save him. Now I know you'd be useful if you were on my side and I trained you."

Alex pulled her hand away. "Bite me."

Adrian chuckled and forcefully grabbed her hand again and this time literally dragged her, half stumbling, to where she could see the boat. The boat in the season finale. The one on which William was.

They climbed aboard and for the first time, Alex could see William. He was sitting on the floor of the boat with blood running down from his forehead, along the side of his face. Alex glared at Chase. This was a kid. The psychopath had hurt a kid for no reason other than revenge.

"Relax," Chase drawled. "I didn't hurt him all that much. It's just a cut." He released Alex and she went straight to William and sat down beside him. The supervillain crew walked away a little to discuss their supervillain plan. Atleast that's what Alex assumed.

She leaned against the side of the boat to lessen the strain on her back. When she looked up after adjusting herself, she saw that William was watching her. She gave him a small smile. "Hey. I'm Alex."

William raised an eyebrow. "Why are you here? Who are you? Who is he? What does he want with me and my mom?"

Alex sighed, her smile dropping. "He didn't tell you anything?"

"He said it had something to do with my father. But I never knew my father. Why would he want me?"

"It's a long story, William, but your father's Oliver Queen." William's eyes widened and Alex continued. "He's also the Green Arrow. And the Green Arrow has a lot of enemies. Listen to me. Chase is the bad guy here. Your dad's a hero. He's going to save you and everyone else, alright? He's risking his life for you and your mother. You might not have known him, but he loves you very, very much." Alex put her hand on his palm.

Before William could respond, Chase's amused voice cut through. "Well of course he does. You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Alex?"

Alex didn't reply and Chase didn't like that. He bent down down in front of her and looked her in the eye. Alex's heart raced and her fear must've shown on her face because she felt William squeeze her hand reassuringly. She bit the inside of her cheek and held his gaze. She also realised that the rest of team supervillain had left the boat. Chase trailed his hand along the side of her face. "You're going to tell me everything you know."

His voice was so low that Alex knew she wouldn't have heard it if she wasn't directly in front of him. It sent shivers down her spine. He leaned forward until his mouth was right next to her ear. Alex squeezed her eyes shut and gulped. "This ended short last time. It's not gonna happen again. There's still time for Oliver to reach the boat, so let's have some fun." He stroked her hair before gripping it tight and standing up. She stood with him, stumbling into him. She tried to fight against his grip but he just held on tighter and tilted her head back.

"Stop it!" William shouted but Chase just help up a finger at him. When William didn't stop, Alex held her hand up at him and stopped fighting Chase. She didn't want William to be hurt because of her.

She took deep breaths and stood there with her head turned skywards, until she felt the familiar sensation of metal against her skin. She whimpered as the blade was dragged across her upper arm. "Tell me how this ends."

Alex closed her eyes and whimpered more. She wasn't going to tell Chase anything. This time the blade was dragged across her cheek. This hurt infinitely more and Alex cried out in pain, trying to flinch away from him. But as usual, his grip didn't relent.

"We have a few minutes left, Alex. I know that you know things. I don't know how, and frankly, I don't care. What I want to know is how this ends. I want to know how to defeat Oliver, now that his team would be saved, thanks to your information."

"Go to hell." Was all Alex told him. Adrian was getting impatient now. She heard the sound of a gun being cocked and opened her eyes.

"A bullet hurts a hell of a lot more than a small knife cut. And I'm going to empty this entire clip into you, without killing you, until you tell me what I want." He pressed the barrel against her left shoulder. She tried to walk back, surprised to find that she could. But with each step she took, Chase took a step forward - gun still pressed to her, and hand still holding her hair. Her legs hit the side of the boat. If she tried to move back any further, she would fall into the Indian Ocean. Alex's mind went blank because _a psychopath had a gun to her shoulder and had threatened to empty the entire clip in her, while still keeping her alive._

"You see, I should be there on the island right now. Threatening Oliver and making sure he kills me, but from what Laurel heard, that's not gonna happen, is it, Alex? Now I'm going to use you to get what I want. Tell me. How. Does. This. End?"

Alex shook hear head and this time, Chase didn't give her a chance. He shot her. Pain like nothing she'd ever experienced exploded in her shoulder. She screamed until her throat hurt. She could feel the blood flowing down her shirt, soaking it.  
Tears streamed down her face and black spots danced in her vision. Chase pulled her head level to his. "Nuh uh uh. No passing out. I told you that you'd feel the pain of this entire clip until you tell me what I want to know."

He released her and she slid down to the floor of the boat, whimpering and clutching her shoulder. William ran to her and buried his head in her shirt, crying into it. Once she could move, she brought her other hand up to card her fingers through his hair. They held each other like that until Chase sat down in front of them again.

"Ready for round two?" He held up his gun again. Alex resolutely held his gaze. She would not help him pointed the gun at her upper arm, where he had cut into earlier. Alex braced herself for the pain again, until his focus shifted to something behind her.

He dragged William and her into the cabin on the boat and locked it. It was pitch black inside and William was hugging her again. He was careful not to touch anywhere near the bullet wound. Alex couldn't help but think about how sweet the kid was. Here he was in a hostage situation and he still cared about her. She whispered soothing words to him, holding him tight. "It's gonna be okay. Your dad's here. He'll get you home. He'll take care of you. It's gonna be okay."

Suddenly the boat started moving and they could hear the sounds of a fight.

"Where's William?!" Oliver shouted. More sounds of fighting. "Where is William?!"

"Adrian!"

Then it went silent. Alex assumed they were talking and they couldn't hear it through the walls of the cabin.

After a few more minutes, the door suddenly opened and Chase pulled both William and Alex out. He held William in a choke hold with one hand while using his other to smash Alex's head to the cabin door with the other.

Alex couldn't see what was happening but she heard the sound of a bowstring being drawn and assumed Oliver had nocked an arrow.

"Don't do that." Chase mocked. "Even if you had a shot, you've already told me that you wouldn't kill me. Or have circumstances finally changed?" He pressed Alex's head harder. "If I die, everyone you care about dies, except your son and Alex, but if you don't kill me, I kill him, and then I take off with Alex. She's not looking so good. How long do you think she'll last, huh? Or do you think I should just end her suffering and take of with poor William instead?" Alex stood extremely still. She knew that with one wrong movement, Chase could snap William's head and feel no remorse. She could not mess this up. Chase turned her around so that she was facing Oliver now and he could see the bullet in her shoulder. She did her best to keep her face blank, but she was sure her expression betrayed the pain she felt.

"You son of a bitch..." Oliver's voice was filled with emotion.

"Them? Or everyone else? You choose. Right now. Either way it proves me right huh? Either way, it's exactly like I told you. Everyone around you, everything you touch dies."

There was a long tense moment where there was no sound. Until there was the zing of an arrow flying and Chase was shouting in pain. The grip on Alex loosened and she tried to run despite the pain in her shoulder, but she wasn't fast enough. Chase pulled her down with him.

Oliver had William in his hands. "Hey! Are you okay? Are you alright?" Oliver asked him before hugging him again.

"He's gonna be fine." Adrian smirked. "But Alex on the other hand..." He squeezed her throat for emphasis.

"Adrian! Leave her alone! She has no part in this. Leave her alone!"

Alex looked at Oliver, trying not to show him that she was scared. She shook her head softly to tell him not to do anything. She gave him a shaky smile. She knew there was a gun next to her. With shaky hands, before Chase could do anything, she picked it up and tried to throw it into the water. Because she had to use her injured arm, it didn't go very far.

Adrian twisted her neck and slammed her head to the floor of the boat before somersaulting to get the weapon. The sharp pain in her neck made black spots dance in her vision.

 _...Alex's heart was racing. Beside her, Kathy was screaming. Alex held out a shaky hand to her best friend, who immediately grabbed on. Suddenly, they plummeted down and she couldn't stop the scream that tore out of her throat. The adrenaline pumping in her veins was making it hard to think about anything other than their interlocked fingers. She was glad Kathy had convinced her to get on the rollercoaster..._

The last thing she heard before losing consciousness was a gunshot and Oliver's scream before a body thudded onto the wooden floor next to her.

 **Aaanndd season 5 is a wrap! Hope you all enjoyed it! Leave reviews and follow the story. Thank you for everyone who's read it.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, followed or favorited this story!**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own anything except Alex and a couple of OCs**

 **10.**

 **Alex**

When Alex woke up, her hearing was disoriented. A white ceiling came into focus after she blinked rapidly, several times. She could tell she was in a hospital from the smell of sterilised equipment and too white everything. The next thing Alex noticed was the numbness. She could tell she was lying on a bed but she couldn't feel much. Obviously, this freaked her out. She moved her head to look around, simultaneously trying to talk. When she found out her throat was completely dry and no sound would come out, understandably, she freaked out even more. She sat up and was happy to find that she could. But in the process of trying to do so, she ripped the IV cord from the back of her palm. Blood started oozing out of the cut and the sight finally brought back all the memories. Even her hearing was stabilised. It was like the switch in her brain was flipped on.

The island, Chase, Oliver, William. She suddenly couldn't breathe. She tried to grasp at something, anything, and her hand hit something beside her bed. The motion produced a stab of pain in her shoulder. Alex was actually glad that she could feel something at this moment, even though she was gasping for breath. Whatever the object was, it cluttered to the floor, in response to which a couple of nurses and a doctor flood in through the door. She tried to gesture to them that she couldn't breathe and one of the nurses gently made her lie back down. Alex complied, mostly because she couldn't fight right then. She felt a needle inject something into her bicep. Breathing immediately became easier. She drew in huge gulps of air, noticing the nurse's hand carding through her hair, in a soothing motion.

Once Alex was sure she was fine and wouldn't have any more attacks, she slowly sat up, the doctor allowing her to do so. The nurse beside her gave her a glass of water, which she gratefully took. Her hands shook slightly, but she ignored it as she emptied the glass within seconds.

Once she was done, the doctor spoke up. "Glad to see you awake, Miss Koller."

"How long was I out for?"

"It's been three days. You were brought in unconscious, with a bullet wound in your shoulder and a few knife marks." The doctor looked sympathetic. What story was the hospital fed? It surely couldn't be 'a deranged psychopath kidnapped and tortured her because she was from an alternate universe and knew his plans'.

Since she didn't know, she might as well ask. "What happened?"

"You were mugged." Huh. It _was_ the easiest and simplest explanation. "Do you remember any of it? Are you having gaps in your memory?"

"Uh, yeah. It's all coming back slowly. I think I just need some rest." Before the doctor told her to do exactly that, Alex barreled on. "Who brought me in?"

The doctor hesitated, but he answered. "You were brought to the hospital by a Mr. René Ramirez." Alex raised an eyebrow at that. Everyone else must've been busy with the aftermath of the stupid island. René was okay. That was good. Which meant maybe everyone else was too. It was frustrating not knowing what happened after the fifth season. She was of no use anymore.

Well, she couldn't think about that right now. Instead, she focused on her current situation. "When can I go home?"

"None of your wounds are fatal, so you will be discharged by tomorrow. For now, you need a good night's rest." Alex glanced at the clock on the table. It read 23:52. Well. She could be patient for one night, she supposed. Plus, she was feeling too tired to get anything out of the doctor anymore. So she nodded at him and settled back down on the bed. The doctor gave some instructions to the nurse and left. Alex fell asleep not long after, hoping everyone was fine.

\- Clairvoyant -

When Alex woke up in the morning, she felt much better. She glanced at the clock. It was forty minutes past 8 in the morning. She could go home today.

"Finally awake, kid?" Alex turned to see René sitting in the chair. He had a smile on his face.

She rolled her eyes at the 'kid' comment but she grinned back at him. "Well, I can't keep you on that very uncomfortable looking chair anymore, can I?"

René shook his head and helped her sit up. "The doc said you could leave any time today. The papers are ready."

"Let me change out of this hideous gown and we can get the hell out of this place." Alex wobbled to the bathroom with the spare set of clothes René gave her. Team Arrow was surprisingly thoughtful about the small things.

Once she was done, she thanked the doctor and the nice nurse from the previous day and René drove her home. She supposed he knew where it was from the time they'd spied on her. She couldn't bring herself to be salty about it. René had also answered all the questions she had. Thea was in a coma, Samantha hadn't survived the explosion. However hard Alex had tried to warn the team early, it hadn't been enough. One good thing was that Malcolm Merlyn was still alive. Alex didn't know if it actually was a good thing, but she wasn't the kind of person to wish someone dead. As much as they deserved it. Everyone else got off the island safely. William was now living with Oliver. René told her that he was still closed off to everybody who wasn't her. Alex was surprised about that.

"Kid wouldn't leave your room the first day. Refused to talk to anyone. Finally, Oliver had Raisa take him home and now he won't leave his room there." René looked at her. "What happened on the boat?"

Alex grimaced and her hand unconsciously went to the bullet wound in her shoulder. "Chase happened. I'll tell the whole story to everyone at once. I don't particularly feel like remembering the details of my torture again and again." René hadn't pressed after that. He'd made sure she ate and was asleep, locking the door behind himself, before leaving.

Her sleep this time around wasn't as pleasant. The memory of being shot as she cried played itself on repeat until she woke up screaming. She threw the covers off and ran to the bathroom. She splashed her face with cold water before gripping the sides of the sink. When she looked in the mirror, she saw a ghost of herself. She looked pale and undernourished. Her hair was a mess and she was panting hard.

Alex went to the kitchen and made herself a cup of hot chocolate. After all, hot chocolate was supposed to help with everything. She carried the mug to the balcony and leaned against the railing, sipping the drink. She closed her eyes to relish in the sweet taste before swallowing.

Once she was done, Alex didn't bother trying to sleep again. She knew she wouldn't be able to, and even if she did, she didn't want to. So she decided to pay a visit to the Arrow Cave. She was going down there unannounced but she knew that everyone knew she'd been discharged. She was surprised Oliver hadn't come to visit her yet, but she supposed there shouldn't be any connection between her and the Mayor in the public's eye, which was why he hadn't come to the hospital. She'd been at home only for two hours anyway.

Alex parked her car in an alley behind the Cave, and descended down in the elevator. Since it was daytime, only Felicity, Dig and Curtis were there.

When Felicity caught sight of her, she gave her a huge grin and ran up to hug her. "I am so glad you're okay! I know René brought you home but we wanted to give you some space to rest before we all swarmed you. Well, I protested but since I was outvoted-"

Alex laughed. "It's good to see you too, Felicity."

The blonde withdrew from the hug but still stayed beside her. Dig and Curtis both smiled at her. "You gave us quite the scare there. Slade came back carrying you unconscious and we were all worried." Alex wrinkled her nose. _Slade Wilson_ carried her? She didn't know how to feel about that.

Curtis patted her shoulder and Alex winced. He immediately withdrew his hand. "Sorry. Sorry, crap, I didn't mean to." 

Alex shook her head. "It's alright, Curtis. It doesn't even hurt that much anymore."

Dig was shaking his head at Curtis and Felicity chuckled. "I can't believe your calling a close range bullet wound into your shoulder not painful after three days. But I have to say, I've heard worse lies down here."

Alex gave her a sour look which said 'I'm not lying' to which the blonde raised both her eyebrows. She didn't believe her. Alex huffed and walked further inside. The others followed and got back to their work.

Alex hadn't actually had the time to admire the Arrow Cave. She'd been down here a couple of times but there had been some kind of threat to be focused on. Now, she walked around looking at everything with a smile playing on her lips. Seeing it on a screen did no justice to the amount of badassery this underground setup contained. The suits in the glass cases looked more intimidating, for one thing. So did the sharpened arrow heads. There were several cupboards and drawers in which Alex assumed were the other weapons and Curtis's science stuff. There was a med table and equipment in one corner, with the bathroom beside it. There were some couches and a bed too. In the centre, Felicity's computers were situated. There were a couple of chairs in front of them (all swivelly, of course) and said computer genius was sitting on one of them. She was typing rapidly while simultaneously keeping an eye on her tablet.

Alex approached her. She hadn't interacted with the team much. She guessed now was as good a time as any. "Watcha doing?"

"Triangulating the location of the guy who robbed Star City bank today morning. He had four accomplices all of whom were apprehended, but the guy got away." She brought up the picture of a blond haired man, who looked to be in his thirties. "Simon Janson."

Alex inhaled deeply. She didn't know who this man was. She didn't know anything anymore. "Sorry, Felicity. My future slash alternate universe knowledge ended with what happened on the island."

Felicity looked up from the monitors at her, surprised. "Hey. I didn't show it to you for information. No need to be sorry. It's not your fault the guy decided to rob a bank."

Alex weakly nodded at her. "Well, I guess I should head back. I just came by to say hi."

The blonde nodded. Alex waved to Dig and Curtis before she left. As Alex drove, she felt useless. Until then, she'd had a purpose. A role. Why was she even in the Arrowverse anymore? She couldn't help the team in any way. Frustrated, she slammed her front door, when she reached home.

Realising that there was no way to get those answers, she decided to distract herself. She took her sketchbook out along with some pencils. She sat on her couch with her phone, scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration. Once she found it, she began to draw. When Alex drew, time flied by. By the time she was done and satisfied with her drawing of small woodland creatures, it was night. She hadn't done much that day, but she was exhausted.

While Alex didn't particularly feel like eating, she still had to take her medicines. She still had to go back to work the next day. Someone had called the kindergarten to inform them of her 'mugging', but she couldn't take a leave forever. Alex sighed and ordered from the cheap Italian place down the street.

Once she was done and taken her meds, she turned to blankly staring at her TV. She didn't want to go to sleep. She turned on the television for some background noise while she scrolled through her Instagram. She didn't realise when the meds kicked in and she fell asleep.

\- Clairvoyant -

The feel of a knife being dragged across her cheek and blood pouring out of her shoulder were what woke Alex up this time, but she didn't scream. She sat upright before curling herself into a ball and sobbing.

As Alex tried to steady her racing heart and calm herself down, she heard a knock. She furrowed her brows and check her phone for the time. Who was knocking at her door at four in the morning?

Alex tiptoed to the door and looked through the peephole. She sagged with relief once she realised it was her favourite person in this world. She took another minute to compose herself and run her hands through her hair before opening the door. She was immediately met with a charming Oliver Queen smile.

He wrapped his hands around Alex's small frame and practically lifted her off the floor. Alex breathed out a laugh and held him as tight as he held her. She felt so safe in that moment, she never wanted to let go.

Sadly, she had to, as he set her down. She beckoned him inside. Oliver was still in his Green Arrow gear, with the hood off. She gave him a glass of water. "I'd offer you a beer or something, but I don't drink."

He chuckled. "That's not something you hear from a teenager often."

Alex shrugged. She took a moment to take in his appearance. He must've visited after his patrol for the night. He didn't look hurt, which she was grateful for. Emotionally though, Alex didn't know. Losing Samantha and with Thea in the hospital, he must be taking it hard. She kept the thoughts to herself though. Oliver Queen didn't need her pity.

When her eyes snapped back to his face, she realised he had been studying her too. She smiled at him. "I'm good as new." She lifted her hands up to emphasize it but unfortunately, the movement put force on her injured shoulder. Oliver raised an eyebrow at her grimace of pain. "It's just the shoulder. It'll be fine in a couple of days." Alex said sheepishly.

He just shook his head. "After what happened in that boat, I wasn't sure you were going to make it, Alex. Your heartbeat and breathing were both strained, and you had so much blood loss. And then when I saw Thea. I thought I was going to lose both of you."

"I'm sorry." She put her hand on his. "You really don't have to worry, though. I'm really fine now."

Oliver nodded. "What happened before I came? I didn't want to talk to William about it. He's been through so much and he lost his mom. He wouldn't talk to anyone either."

"Oh, you know, same old." She tried to joke. "Chase tries to torture me, I don't give him anything, and then you save the day. My hero." She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

Oliver looked unimpressed. Alex smothered a grin before sobering up. "Seriously. That's what happened."

"What did he want from you? Did he know about you?"

Alex sighed. "Yeah. I don't know how, but he did. He wanted to know how it ended. How to win, now that I'd told you what happens, blah, blah..."

"Alex." Oliver said seriously. "You should have just given him what he wanted. I don't want this to happen ever again, understood?" His blue eyes were pleading.

Alex looked away. "Look. I'm not a fan of getting tortured either, okay? But I'm not going to give up information that could potentially destroy you. I don't care what it does to me."

Oliver released a frustrated breath. "You don't have to do that! I care more about you. Whatever happens, we could deal with it together alright?"

"And what if we can't? What if something happens to any of you because I screwed up by just existing? I'm a liability Oliver, I know that. But I'll be damned if I ever betrayed you."

He just looked exasperated and muttered something about stupid teenage girls. Alex glared at him. He rolled his eyes.

"Fine. You just came from the hospital yesterday, and I'm not in the mood to argue with you." Alex smirked. She won this round.

"Speaking of coming from the hospital, you look like hell."

Alex snorted at his bluntness. "Yea, well, you don't look all that great yourself." She returned, lamely.

Oliver smirked. "Right."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Very mature." Alex made face at him, even though she was just proving his point now.

Once she was satisfied he wasn't gonna reply to that, she asked him, "You hungry?" 

"Hell yeah." He flopped further down onto the sofa, finding the remote to the television.

"Vigilanteeing is a taxing job, huh?" She got up to microwave the leftovers from the previous night.

Oliver flipped through the channels. "First, that's not a word. And second, you have no idea."

"I'm sure taxing is a word, Mr. Mayor." She handed him the plate.

He took it with a roll of his eyes. "You're supposed to be the teacher. No wonder the kids are all turning out like they are."

"Careful, you sound old." Alex teased. "Kids in my days used to have proper education." He laughed at her poor imitation of a deep voice.

It was silent after that, but not awkward. They were both invested in the romcom playing on the television. At one point, Oliver went to the kitchen to wash his plate, but Alex barely registered it. Between barely sleeping because of her nightmares and being worried about her existence in the Arrowverse, she was very tired. When the movie was over and the credits started playing, Alex switched it off and yawned.

"Let's get you a couple more hours of sleep." Oliver stood up.

She nodded. "Yeah, I have to get to the kindergarten tomorrow. I miss those little devils."

He smiled. "I bet they miss you too."

"We'll see." Alex laughed. "You gonna stay?"

The vigilante shook his head. "Raisa would have made breakfast. She's waiting for me to come home so she can leave. Can't leave William alone." Alex nodded.

"Speaking of William, he's been asking for you. The only thing he actually says to me, really."

"Yeah René mentioned it." She scratched the back of her head. "I'll see him after I come back from the kindergarten. Just text me your address."

Oliver nodded. "I'll see you. Get some sleep."

 **Yeah I know it's a filler chapter but the next couple are probably going to be fillers too. I need to still establish the dynamic between Alex and the rest of the characters. I wanted to explore Oliver and Alex's relationship and well as her relationship with Felicity more. Besides, the events of season 6 don't happen until three or four months later.**

 **As usual, I hope you enjoyed it! Read and review. Criticism is welcome.**

 **Adiós!**


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